Why Did This Happen?

You guys are good,, What's up with this?

Postcard rate to Europe was 3 cents in 1939.
Postage due was collected from the recipient.

Under the UPU conventions, the offended country was allowed to charge the recipient of the card 3x the going Postage Due Rate for mail originating from outside the the country! The information on how UPU members calculate Postage Due charges is explained UPU Protocol 1952

Nice cover philatelically, but the message strikes me as pretty airhead given the date. The war had already started in Europe and Poland had been taken. I would expect at least a bit of concern.

The message does have "The Land of the Free. Home of the Brave" written on the upper left edge. There's a bit of concern in the message as the writer ends the message with "Can't you come home?".

Hal, How does the 1952 Protocol explain a card mailed in 1939? That is 13 years ex post facto.
It looks like the 1934 Cairo convention rules were in effect in 1939. What do they state?

Those appear to have been written as afterthoughts, though. Doesn't seem to convey any urgency in a very uncertain and dangerous time.

Thanks everyone for the info.. I just didn't know why they added 3 stamps.. Is that the way it's done? Why not 1 stamp ?

Maybe they did not stock a 90 centimes stamp?

Peter

rev: There could be a lot of factors going on. One wouldn't write too sensitive information on a postcard for all to see. Also, at this time a lot of the French and other Europeans didn't or didn't want to believe that Germany was gearing up to invade France. France and Britain were still hoping diplomacy would save Europe. Also even if you read letters from the U.S. Civil War period - most are very mundane and myopic in their writing. U.S. WWII letters tend to be very mundane and simplistic as well (thanks to censors).

Once we were in the war, sure. And it's true, at that moment no one really knew what the next 6 years were going to turn into.

This card might have come from a relative of Slocum Howland, a somewhat famous New York State resident.

very nice