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Title: The Postage Stamp in War
Author: Melville, Fred. J.
Language: English
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* * * * *
The Postage Stamp in War.
_By the same Author._
A new work on the postage stamps of the new British Protectorate of
EGYPT
in the Melville Stamp Book series (_No._ 20) is now on the press and
will be published in January, 1915, by Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., 391
Strand, W.C. Price 6d. Post free. 7½d.
... THE ...
POSTAGE STAMP
IN WAR
BY
FRED J. MELVILLE,
EDITOR OF "THE POSTAGE STAMP."
MDCCCCXV - PUBLISHED - BY - FRED.
J. - MELVILLE, - 14 - SUDBOURNE - RD.,
BRIXTON, - LONDON, - ENGLAND.
COPYRIGHT.
All rights of translation and reproduction reserved.
_ACKNOWLEDGED WITH THANKS._
_To many collectors and dealers we are indebted for the loan of
stamps, envelopes, etc., for illustration in this work, including
Messrs. E. Bentley Wood, H. H. Harland, W. J. Holmes, Nathan Heywood,
J. Ireland, R. Wedmore, Stanley Gibbons, Ltd., Hugo Griebert & Co.,
Alfred Smith & Son, W. T. Wilson, Whitfield King & Co., Charles Nissen
& Co., Lewis May & Co., W. S. Lincoln & Son, Bright & Son, R. Roberts,
Bridger & Kay, A. C. Roessler, C. Davies, and others._
_Captain Lionel Crouch has kindly assisted in revising the proofs._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE POSTAGE STAMP WITH THE FLAG.--British Posts in the Crimea--The
Abolition of the Capitulations--The British Fleet in the
Baltic--Abyssinian Expedition--The First Army Postal Corps--
Egypt--Dongola Expedition--South Africa--The British Army Post in
France, 1914--How to Address Soldier's Letters--The Postmarks from
France--The Navy's Postmarks. Page 7.
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN ARMY POSTAL SERVICE--China Expeditionary Force--British
Railway Administration in China--Somaliland--The Forbidden City of
Lhassa--Indian Expeditionary Force in France. Page 28.
CHAPTER III.
SOUTH AFRICAN WARS--Transvaal--Orange River Colony--Krugersdorp--
Kuruman--Lydenburg--Mafeking--Pietersburg--Rustenburg--Schweizer
Renecke--Volksrust--Vryburg--Wolmaranstad--The Union--South
African War of 1914. Page 37.
CHAPTER IV.
FRANCE--Napoleon's Minister of Posts--The Second Republic--The
Presidency--Empire--French Expeditions to China and Mexico--
Sedan--Metz--Strasburg--The Siege of Paris--Balloon Post--Pigeon
Post--Peace--Military Frank Stamps--The German Invasion, 1914--Red
Cross Stamps--War Postcards and Postmarks. Page 49.
CHAPTER V.
RUSSIA--War Charity Stamps--Portraits of the Tsars--War Stamps of
1914--Japan--War with China--The Empress Jingo--Triumphal
Military and Naval Reviews--Kiao-chow--Belgium--King Albert--
Bombardment of Malines--Private Postal Service--Germanised
Posts--Red Cross Stamps--Bogus Stamps--Postmarks--Serbia--"Death
Mask" Stamps--King Peter--Montenegro--King Nicholas. Page 59.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ENEMY'S STAMPS--Germany--Austria--Bosnia--Hungary--Turkey.
Page 75.
CHAPTER VII.
AMERICAN WARS.--United States--Civil War--Confederate
Stamps--Hispano-American War--Vera Cruz--Canada--Mexican
Revolution--South and Central America. Page 91.
CHAPTER VIII.
MISCELLANEOUS WARS AND COMMEMORATIONS--Patriotic Empire
Stamps--Victoria--New Zealand--Barbados' Nelson Stamp--A Dutch
Naval Commemoration--Balkan Wars--Greece--Albania--Epirus--
Bulgaria--Roumania--Italy--Portugal--Spain--Mysterious
Melillas--China. Page 100
CHAPTER IX.
THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1915. Check List of New War Stamps.
Page 113.
[Illustration: Russia's New War Stamps. (_Figs. 189-192. See
Chapter V._)]
THE POSTAGE STAMP IN WAR.
CHAPTER I.
THE POSTAGE STAMP WITH THE FLAG.--British Posts in the
Crimea--The Abolition of the Capitulations--The British Fleet
in the Baltic--Abyssinian Expedition--The First Army Postal
Corps--Egypt--Dongola Expedition--South Africa--The
British Army Post in France, 1914--How to Address Soldier's
Letters--The Postmarks from France--The Navy's Postmarks.
The Postage Stamp follows the Flag. The same small talisman which
passes our letters across the seven seas to friends the world over
maintains the lines of personal communication with our soldiers and
sailors in time of war. Wherever the British Tommy goes he must have
his letters from home; like the lines of communication, which are the
life-line of the army, postal communication is the chief support of
the courage and spirit of the individual soldier. His folk at home
send him new vigour with every letter that tells of the persons,
places and things that are nearest and most cherished in his memory.
In these days letter-sending and letter-getting are so common-place
that few give any thought to the great organisation by which thousands
of millions of postal packets are posted and delivered in this country
every year. And now that most of us have friends at the Front, in
France, in Belgium, or on the high seas, we are perhaps inclined to
take it all just as a matter of course that letters pass and repass
much in the ordinary humdrum way. This is plain to the conductors of
our postal services when during war time they get numerous complaints
from individuals of delay or even non-delivery, or any one of a number
of other minor inconveniences which must often be unavoidable in the
stirring times of war.
To-day many thousands of letters and postal packets are being sent
to and received from the troops of the British Expeditionary Force in
France, yet it is a simple fact that but a small percentage of the
civilian population in this country knows anything of the existence,
far less of the workings, of the Army Postal Service as an organisation
separate and distinct from the postal department of the home Government.
The Army Postal Service is administered under a Director of Postal
Services, who is responsible to the Commander in Chief of the Army, and
whose system is established with the co-operation of the Inspector-General
of Communications.
The formation of a British Army Post Office Corps is of comparatively
recent date. It was first suggested by Colonel du Plat Taylor in the
seventies, as a means of using the services of the Post Office Rifle
Volunteers in war time, but it was not until the Egyptian campaign in
1882 that the corps was formed.
Prior to this, however, bodies of servants of the Post Office had done
duty with the army in organising and maintaining postal communication
with the armies in the field and with the links connecting up with the
home service. During the Crimean War extensive arrangements were made
by the Post Office to maintain postal communication with the forces in
Turkey, the Black Sea, and the Baltic. Prior to the war, the British
Government did not maintain any postal packets between Mediterranean
ports save some steam vessels for the transport of the Indian mails,
and some of these were taken up by the military and naval authorities.
Letters for Constantinople and the Levant ordinarily went through the
French and Austrian administrations and were chargeable at the then
high foreign rates of postage. With the assistance of the French
Government, letters were sent _viâ_ Marseilles to Constantinople
(or _vice-versâ_) at first at intervals of three times a month, but
afterwards six times a month, and during the latter period of the war,
twice a week.
But the French mail packets went no further than Constantinople, so
the British Postmaster-General sent out an experienced officer, Mr. E.
J. Smith, of the London General Post Office, to Turkey as Postmaster
of His Majesty's Forces; and three Assistant Postmasters, together
with seven Letter Sorters. As the facilities for land transport
accorded the Postmaster proved insufficient he was furnished with
eighteen horses and mules for the exclusive use of his office. The
Postmaster was supplied with the postage stamps of the home country,
then (so far as the penny and twopence denominations were concerned)
in the early and beautifully engraved design of William Wyon's "Queen's
Head." This was the first use of British postage stamps on foreign
territory, or indeed anywhere beyond the limits of the British Isles,
and stamp collectors take a considerable interest in the English stamps
which survive with the various Crimean postmarks specially supplied to
the Postmaster of His Majesty's Forces in the East. Stamps used on
letters from the forces may be recognised by either the Crown and Stars
or Cypher and Stars or the circular dated postmarks (_Figs._ 1-4). A
range of the early penny red stamps, from the imperforate red-brown
stamp of 1841 to the Die II. large Crown perforated 14 stamp may be
found, as well as the twopence blues of the same period, and the 4d.
rose (1857), 6d. violet (1854), and 1s. green (1847) (_see Figs. 5-10_).
There are possibly others not yet known to collectors.
[Illustration: 1 2 3 4 _Figs. 1-4. Crimean Postmarks._]
[Illustration: 5 6 7 8 9 10 _Figs. 5-10. British stamps found with
Crimean postmarks._]
The correspondence dealt with by this small staff was considerable,
averaging 45,250 letters despatched to and 43,125 received from the
seat of war in each month. In one year 543,000 letters were despatched
to and 517,500 received from the forces in the Crimea.
The chief officer in charge at the British post offices in Turkey and
the Crimea during the war, Mr. E. J. Smith, is specially mentioned
in the Postmaster-General's report for 1857 as having discharged his
duties in a very creditable manner. In that year his services were
offered to and accepted by the Turkish Government with a view to
establishing an improved postal service in the Sultan's dominions.
Since this date British post offices have been maintained (in common
with post offices of other Powers) in various parts of the Turkish
dominions, using British stamps with or without a special overprint.
These offices were closed in October, 1914, as a result of Turkey's
declaration of the "abolition of the Capitulations," just prior to
Turkey's open acts of war against the allied forces of Great Britain,
France, and Russia in the present war.
Ordinary British stamps used at the British post-offices in the
Ottoman Empire may be distinguished by postmarks (_Figs._ 11-17).
[Illustration: 11 12 13 (Constantinople)]
[Illustration: 14 15 (Smyrna) 16 17 (Beyrout)
_Postmarks of British Post Offices in Turkish Empire._]
The first three are from Constantinople, the fourth and fifth from
Smyrna, and the last two Beyrout. There are also "S" Stamboul, "B01"
Alexandria, "B02" Suez, as well as ordinary date stamps of all these
places.
The following are illustrations of samples of the stamps which were in
use at the British post-offices in Turkey at the time of the abolition
of the Capitulations. (_Figs._ 18, 19).
[Illustration: 18 19 20]
Special arrangements were also made for maintaining postal
communications with the British Fleet in the Baltic, the stamps
used being distinguishable by postmarks of diamond-shaped internal
configuration (_Fig._ 20). It is possible that date marks of Dantzig
may also be found on British stamps of this period; they appear on
the covers of letters bearing British stamps with the diamond
cancellations. In the early part of the naval campaign letters were
transmitted exclusively by war vessels or transports, but in the
beginning of May, 1854, when the greater part of the Fleet had reached
its destination the Admiral commanding in chief was directed to
establish regular weekly communication by steamer between the ships
under his command and the port of Dantzig. Mails for the Fleet were
despatched from London every Tuesday to Dantzig, under cover of a bag
addressed to Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at that port, who handed
the bag over to the commander of the steamer which was timed to arrive
at Dantzig each Friday. This arrangement, while satisfactory in respect
of speed and regularity, involved the charging of the high foreign
rates of postage, as the route was through Belgium and Prussia, but,
as often as facilities offered, mails were made up for transmission by
Government transports passing to and from England and the Baltic, by
which soldiers and sailors were able to send and receive letters at
their privilege rate of one penny each.
ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION. The following is the type of date stamp used
by the British post-office corps accompanying Sir Robert Napier's
successful expedition to Abyssinia in 1867-1868 (_Fig._ 21).
[Illustration: 21]
The Indian Government sent an army postal corps to Abyssinia, the
mails to and from the United Kingdom connecting up with the vessels
carrying the Indian mails off Jubbel Teer in the Red Sea. The late
Mr. J. G. Hendy of the G.P.O. Muniment Room records[1] that, in April
1868, a direct weekly mail service was established between Suez and
Zoulla. The rates for letters under half an ounce were the same as to
India, _viz._:
_Viâ_ Southampton. _Viâ_ Marseilles.
Officers of Army or Navy, 6d. 10d.
Soldiers and Seamen, 1d. 5d.
For persons serving on board transports or
other persons not belonging to the naval
or military forces, 9d. 1s. 1d.
He also states that naval and military officers, when serving on
colonial or foreign stations, were permitted, under Treasury Warrant
of May 16, 1857, to send or receive letters at the reduced British
postage of 6d. per ounce, in all cases where the postage of ordinary
letters to or from the same place was higher than 6d. The privilege
was withdrawn on January 1, 1870, and then letters became liable to
the general rates of postage.
[Footnote 1: "The Postmarks of the British Isles from 1840." By J. G.
Hendy. London, 1909; p. 13.]
EGYPT. The organisation of an Army Postal Corps was authorised on July
18, 1882, for service in Egypt, and it was promptly completed. Colonel
du Plat Taylor was instructed to form the corps of two officers and
one hundred men from the Post-Office Volunteers (24th Middlesex)
for enrolment in the first-class Army Reserve. The men combined the
advantages of experience in postal work, as sorters and postmen, with
army training. The officers selected were Major Sturgeon (of the Money
Order Office) and Captain Viall (Receiver and Accountant General's
Department), the former taking command with the army rank of Captain,
and the latter seconding him, with the army rank of Lieutenant. The
men received their post-office pay, and, while on active service, in
addition to free kit and rations, the privates drew army pay of 1s.,
corporals 1s. 8d., and sergeants 2s. 4d. per day.
[Illustration: 22]
The famous blind Postmaster-General, Henry Fawcett, inspected the
corps at the General Post Office on July 26, and the officers with 50
men sailed on August 8, disembarking at Alexandria on August 21. Their
first postal duties were undertaken at Alexandria and Ramleh, but
two days after disembarkation they re-embarked, joining up with Lord
Wolseley's main forces at Ismailia on August 26. The base was at
Ismailia, whence the post office corps sent out its branches, planting
advanced base and field post offices connecting the base with the
changing front, between which and the base a daily service was
maintained. In September, shortly after the battle of Tel-el-Kebir,
the Army and the Army Post Office reached Cairo, and re-embarked for
home on October 7. The despatches gave high praise to the efficiency
and useful service of the corps.
Three years later, Major Sturgeon (promoted in recognition of his
services in Egypt, 1882) again commanded a corps of twenty N.C.O.'s
and men, in Sir Gerald Graham's Suakim expedition of 1885. The
corps left England on March 3, and returned on July 28, after a more
difficult experience with the Suakim garrison than they had met with
in the first Egyptian campaign.
DONGOLA EXPEDITION. Of the Dongola Expeditionary Force under General
Kitchener in 1896 we have no record of the use of English stamps,
but Mr. H. H. Harland has shown us an interesting envelope with the
postmark of Wadi-Halfa camp, the letter not being prepaid as no stamps
were available (_Fig._ 23).
[Illustration: _Fig. 23. Dongola Expeditionary Force._]
SOUTH AFRICA, 1899-1902. Major Sturgeon was succeeded in the command
of the Army Postal Corps by his second in command, Captain Viall. On
the death of the latter (1890), Captain G. W. Treble of the London
Postal Service took the command, which he held at the outbreak of the
South African War in 1899, aided by Captain W. Price (now Colonel W.
Price, C.M.G., in command of the Army Post Office with the British
Expeditionary Force in France) and Lieutenant H. M'Clintock, these
latter officers belonging to the Secretary's Office of the G.P.O.,
London. A first portion of the company, with Captain Treble, left
England with General Buller and his staff, and the rest followed on
October 21, and several further detachments went out with later
contingents. In South Africa they had a very wide area to cover. At
the outset Captain Treble established himself with the headquarters
of the Inspector General of Communications in Cape Colony, and moved
about keeping close touch with the movements of the forces, an
important part of his duties being to forward to the various offices
the information necessary to ensure the correct circulation of the
mails. Captain Price was at Cape Town, and Lieutenant M'Clintock at
Pietermaritzburg.
The British military mails were made up in the London G.P.O. in
special bags addressed to the Army Post Office, and sent to the G.P.O.
at Cape Town, in which building the detachment of the Army Postal
Corps under Captain Price had established its base office. The bags
containing military mails were handed over to the Army Base Post
Office at Cape Town whence they were distributed to the various
military post offices established at the centres of the troops, and to
field post offices with each Brigade or Division in the field. In the
return direction the soldiers' letters were handed in at field post
offices and forwarded through various channels, sometimes ordinary
and ofttimes military to the base at Cape Town, whence they were
despatched to England in the ordinary way.
Early in 1900 the average weekly mail from London to the Field Forces
was 150 bags of letters, postcards, etc., and 60 boxes of parcels; the
incoming mail from the Field Forces was 11 bags of letters per week.
In a letter dated from Cape Town, February 27, from Lieutenant Preece,
who went out with reinforcements for the Army Post Office Corps in
February, are some interesting glimpses of the difficulties of the
work of this service[2]:
"Price, of the Post Office Corps, met us and told us (Captain)
Palmer was to leave at once for Kimberley with 17 men
(Captain) Labouchere and (Lieut.) Curtis to proceed on to
Natal with 50 men, and I was to take the remainder ashore here
(Cape Town) and stop to help at the base. At 9.30 on Monday
morning I marched off with my 57 men to the main barracks and
bid good-bye to the good ship 'Canada' and her merry cargo.
After lodging the men in barracks I went off to the G.P.O.,
where I found Price and his 40 men ensconced in one huge wing,
overwhelmed with work, and at breaking-down point. The mails
every week increase now, and we have 250,000 pieces of mail
matter to sort and distribute every week, over a country
larger than France, among a shifting population of soldiers,
each of whom expects to get his letters as easily as he gets
his rations. It is a vast job, and we have done wonderfully
so far with a totally inadequate staff. We have come in
the nick of time. The recent movements (the advance of Lord
Roberts from Modder River, relief of Ladysmith, etc.) have
caused chaos among our mails. We receive and send telegrams
every hour either to a field post office or to headquarter
staffs. The latter order immediate reinforcement at Modder
River, and Price has decided to send me up with more men to
proceed to Paardeberg, or wherever the troops are, to get
things straight."
[Footnote 2: St. Martins le Grand, vol. x., page 201.]
The preliminary arrangements necessitated by the vast area of the
operations provided for two base offices, the one in Cape Colony and
the other in Natal, and 43 field post offices, and by June, 1900, the
Army Postal Corps was composed of ten officers and 400 N.C.O.'s and
men, exclusive of post office telegraphists, etc., serving with the
Royal Engineers. Many interesting statistics of the mails at different
periods of the war have been given in various records, but it
will suffice to quote some general ones on the authority of the
Postmaster-General. His forty-sixth report, 1900, states:
During eight months of the Crimean War, 362,000 letters were
sent out, and 345,000 were sent home. During a similar period
of the war in South Africa 5,629,938 letters were sent out,
and 2,731,559 were sent home.
The work of the corps was not undisturbed by the depredations of the
enemy, and not infrequently the members of the corps had to defend the
mails in their charge along with the guards provided by the military.
On June 7, 1900, General De Wet, who has lately extinguished the
admiration in which Britons held him for his brilliant and elusive
tactics, by his treachery in the present war, swooped down with 1200
men and 5 guns on Roodewal Station where Lieutenant Preece had 2000
bags, a several weeks' accumulation of mails for Lord Roberts' main
army. There were 17 men of the Army Postal Corps, and these, with
about 160 men in charge of supplies, etc., had to defend the station.
Two of the seventeen were killed, and Lieutenant Preece and the
remainder of his gallant little corps were taken prisoners. The 2000
mail bags were used as a barricade. It is recorded that when the
gallant little band surrendered, and De Wet, riding an English cavalry
horse, came up, the Boer general was most polite and even kind in many
ways, and expressed himself as "very sorry to do it," when asked not
to destroy the letters and registered parcels. He said if he did not
do so, his young Boers would open and read them and turn the letters
of the soldiers into ridicule. The bags were opened, the contents
strewed about, and the Boers possessed themselves of the valuables,
while tobacco, cigarettes, cakes, chocolates were so plentifully
strewed about that the young Boers even invited their prisoners to
help themselves, as the General was going to burn everything. And he
did burn the entire station.
In his forty-seventh report (1901) the Postmaster-General states:
The Army Post Office is still in operation in South Africa.
The staff now consists of 7 officers and about 540 men. The
weekly mail for the Army Post Office contains on an average
204,000 letters and 115,300 packets of printed matter; and
it is estimated that during the year ended 31st March, 1901,
11,551,300 letters were sent to the troops and 9,250,000 were
received from them. During the same period the parcels sent
out to the forces in South Africa by post amounted to 534,245,
the largest number despatched on any one occasion, namely,
on the 1st of December, 1900, being 19,672. About 8745 such
parcels are now sent each week.
As to the magnitude and difficulties of the work of the Army
Post Office, I cannot do better than quote the following
paragraph from Earl Roberts' despatch of the 16th August
last:--
"The magnitude of the task set the Military Postal Service may
be appreciated when it is realised that the Army Mails from
England have exceeded in bulk the whole of the mails arriving
for the inhabitants of Cape Colony and Natal, and contained
each week little short of 750,000 letters, newspapers, and
parcels for the troops. No little credit is therefore due to
the department under Major Treble in the first few months,
and for the greater part of the time under Lieut.-Colonel J.
Greer, Director of Military Postal Services, for the way in
which it has endeavoured to cope with the vast quantity of
correspondence, bearing in mind the incessant manner in which
the troops have been moved about the country, the transport
difficulties which had to be encountered, the want of postal
experience in the bulk of the personnel of the corps, and the
inadequacy of the establishments laid down for the several
organisations."
His Majesty has been pleased to confer the honour of C.M.G. on
Messrs. Greer and Treble in acknowledgment of their services.
The forty-eighth report (1902) mentions no change of any importance in
the Army Postal Service in South Africa, and gives the weekly average
mail from England as 184,000 letters and 143,600 packets of printed
matter: the total number of letters for the year ended March 31, 1902,
was 10,774,000 outward, and 8,372,000 homeward, showing a decrease
compared with previous returns. During the same period 528,000 parcels
were sent out.
The last official reference to the Army Postal Service in South
Africa is contained in the forty-ninth (1903) report, announcing its
withdrawal, postal communications with the troops still on service
in the old colonies and the new ones being carried on through the
Colonial Post Offices under the ordinary regulations. The Peace was
declared May 31, 1902.
The war in South Africa left its impress on many pages of the stamp
collector's album, but at this juncture we are chiefly concerned with
the immediate work of the British military postal service. Collectors
have followed the use of the stamps of the home country into the
distant fields of operations by means of the various postmarks which
are summarised as follows from the collection of Captain Guy R.
Crouch, of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry[3]:
[Footnote 3: _The Postage Stamp_, vol. XIV., pp. 234-237.]
[Illustration: 24 25 26 27]
Type 1 (_Fig._ 24). Office Numbers from 1 to 56, and 100. Used also
at Cape Town base with initials BO (Base Office) and an asterisk
(sometimes omitted) in lieu of the office number. Also at sub-base
offices with larger office numerals 1 to 9.
Type 2 (_Figs._ 25, 26). Commonly without the year being noted, as in
the first illustration but also found with the year as in the second
illustration of this mark. It has been largely supposed, but without
much, if any, foundation that these year-less marks originated in
Ladysmith during the siege, but little correspondence can have been
passed out of the town during that period, and the origin of many of
these marks is known _not_ to have been Ladysmith.
[Illustration: 28 29 30 31 32]
Type 3 (_Fig._ 27). Used in sub-offices supplementary to type 1, found
stamped in blue-green as well as in black. Office numbers 41-60.
Type 4 (_Fig._ 28). Used in Base Office at Cape Town.
Type 5 (_Fig._ 29). A locally made rubber-stamp cancellation found in
several sub-varieties.
Type 6 (_Fig._ 30). Used in the field post offices attached to the
Natal Field Force with name of place or number.
Type 7 is similar to type 2 but lettered NATAL FIELD FORCE, found in
black and in violet.
Type 8, a newspaper cancellation, with NFF (Natal Field Force) in
white letters on a black ground, circular shape.
[Illustration: 30A 32A.]
Type 9 (_Fig._ 30A). A thick lined circle, 20 mm. in diameter,
lettered F.P.O. (Field Post Office) and a number, also used for
newspapers.
Type 10. An almost circular obliteration lettered P.O.A. (Post Office,
Africa) with the number 43, a bracket at each side and two thick bars
at top and at bottom.
Type 11 (_Fig._ 31). Used in travelling post offices (T.P.O.), struck
in black or violet. The travelling post offices are "EAST NO. 1,"
"MIDLAND," "WESTERN," and "NORTHERN."
Type 12 (_Fig._ 32). For fixed army post offices in Orange River
Colony and Transvaal, used from about the end of 1901 and for a short
time after the declaration of peace.
A fancy type of town postmark is shown in _Fig._ 32A.
Another interesting postmark relic of the war in South Africa is
one struck in red "RECOVERED FROM WRECK OF MEXICAN" a ship which was
returning from South Africa with mails from the troops, and which
foundered after collision with the ss. _Winkfield._ The bulk of the
mail was recovered.
THE GREAT WAR, 1914. The Army Postal Service with the British
Expeditionary Force on the Continent in the present war is under the
command of Colonel W. Price, C.M.G., who as Captain Price had the long
experience of service with the Army Post Office in South Africa. It is
scarcely necessary to say that the volume of correspondence now being
dealt with by the service is unprecedented in the history of the
British Army. In the early months of the war the outgoing mail to the
Army Base Post Office in France averaged 12,000 parcels and 250,000
to 300,000 letters a day. It is impossible to give statistics of the
number of branch offices of all grades established, but already there
are many interesting postmarks originating with the British Army in
France.
The various types of marks so far recorded are:--
Army Base Post Office (_Fig._ 33).
Advance Base Post Office (_Fig._ 34).
[Illustration: 33 34]
Army Post Offices with the Troops (_Figs._ 35-37).
[Illustration: 35 36 37]
There are also a number of types of Censor marks, not all necessarily
military, and printed labels used in re-sealing opened letters
(_Figs._ 38-40):
[Illustration: 38 38A 39 40. 40A. 40B. 40C. 40D.]
In this connection may also be mentioned the various marks used on
letters sent by prisoners of war in charge of the British military
authorities at home and abroad. An old type of prisoner-of-war mark
dated 1800 is illustrated in _Fig._ 41, from "Pre-Victorian Postage
Stamps and Franks" by Mr. G. A. Foster.[4]
[Footnote 4: London. 1910: Charles Nissen & Co.]
[Illustration: 41]
The following are examples of the marks now being used (_Figs._ 42,
43):
[Illustration: 42 43 42A. 43A.]
It may be well to give a brief outline of the methods of the Army
Postal Service, that its work may be better known and understood.
In addressing letters to the troops it is important to give the full
military particulars of the addressee, _viz_:--Regimental number,
rank, name, squadron, battery or company, battalion, regiment (or
other unit), staff appointment or department, and title of the
Expeditionary Force. With these details set out clearly on the
envelope, the work of the Army Postal Service is facilitated and the
letter stands every chance of going through without delay.
In France, as the postmarks already illustrated denote, the British
Army Postal Service has several grades of post offices. The chief is
the Base Post Office, the principal sorting establishment for all mail
matter passing between our British Post Office and the Army Postal
Service. The Base Office is quite a large concern and has a vast
amount of clerical work to perform. In it letters are sorted,
letters taking precedence over all other mail matter, after which the
newspapers, and lastly the parcels are dealt with. Accounts of all the
branch post offices are filed and the general routines and formulae of
the Post Office at home are adhered to in detail. Letters, etc., for
services, departments and units at the base are put into callers'
boxes for delivery to the post orderlies. Those for more distant
services and units are forwarded to the various grades of branch
offices.
At the Base Office one of the most complicated and difficult tasks
is the re-direction of letters. Here are kept hospital lists, giving
names of men away from their units in hospital, and these hospital
rolls are revised weekly. Here also records have to be kept of the
movements of the units, and these records are constantly in process of
revision, and frequent communication is maintained with every branch
office in the field.
From the Base Office mails for field units are forwarded to the
Advanced Base Post Office, which in its turn distributes them to
the Field Post Offices serving the units to which the letters are
addressed. There are several kinds of field post offices; those "with
train" are attached to the headquarters of each train, and handle the
letters of the units served by the train. Branch field post offices
are attached to the general headquarters, and to the headquarters of
armies, divisions, and brigades. Then there are stationary field post
offices at various points on the line of communication, and in some
cases travelling post offices on railway lines.
It devolves upon the Director of Army Postal Services, who is
represented at general headquarters, and at the headquarters of each
Army by an Assistant Director, to organise the service, and to supply
to the various offices the information necessary to ensure the proper
circulation of the mails. This, especially in a campaign like the
present, is a delicate task, often complicated by the restrictions
necessary in military policy to preserve secrecy as to the movements
of the troops.
* * * * *
NAVAL POSTMARKS. Of the naval postal arrangements, reference has
already been made to the cancellations used on letters originating
with the British Fleet in the Baltic during the Crimean War (_Fig._
20). Special navy post offices were in the early days established by
local postmasters at various ports as a link between the land service
and the Fleet in home waters. The letters were marked with _Fig._ 44,
and the local postmaster collected an extra penny charge upon such
letters for delivery to ships lying in the harbour or roadstead.
[Illustration: 44]
The late Mr. W. G. Hendy, of the Muniment Room, records that with the
introduction of Uniform Penny Postage (1840) it was decided so far as
Portsmouth was concerned, that such letters should be delivered free
in the harbour as far as Spithead; but it was not until May, 1852,
that the practice of charging the extra penny for delivery was
abolished at Devonport and Plymouth, and free delivery extended to all
vessels lying in the harbour (Hamoaze), although not to vessels lying
in Plymouth Sound. The following are types of postmarks used after
free delivery was granted. (_Figs._ 45, 46.)
[Illustration: 45 46]
The same authority states that a privilege was accorded to
non-commissioned officers, seamen, and soldiers of sending and
receiving within any part of the British dominions, under certain
regulations, letters on their own concerns only, not exceeding half
an ounce, at the rate of one penny each. Such letters had to be
superscribed with the name of the seaman or soldier, his class and
description, the name of the ship or regiment to which he belonged;
and if they were the writers of the letters, they had to be
countersigned by the officer commanding. When this regulation was not
complied with letters were charged as ordinary, and postmarked with
_Fig._ 47.
[Illustration: 47]
No doubt there are many more postmarks with a naval interest,
including those valued by collectors as indicating stamps on letters
originating in the various naval stations abroad from 1858 to 1870,
recognised by the following letters and numbers:--
A79 to A89. Pacific Naval Stations.
A90 to A99. Atlantic Naval Stations.
B03, B12, B56. African Naval Stations.
B53 (Mauritius), B62 and C79 (Hong Kong), B64 (Seychelles).
Also "B", "H", and the date stamp in the case of "Ascension".
In the present war the naval postmarks promise to be of exceptional
interest. The postmarks for both Army and Navy give no clue to the
locality in which the correspondence originates; this, of course,
applies to mails coming from the field or area of operations; there
is no occasion to disguise place of origin of letters going out to
sailors or soldiers. Most of the naval marks at present in use bear no
inscriptions of any kind, though there is a type inscribed Fleet Post
Office (_Fig._ 48).
[Illustration: 48]
Even the machine cancellation, doubtless used in some large centre
of naval concentration, has had bars (or type turned base upwards) in
lieu of the lettering and date (_Fig._ 49).
[Illustration: 49. _Machine Cancellation_ (_Navy_).]
Other naval marks introduced in the present campaign, in accordance no
doubt with a secret code, are in various devices, such as a propeller,
a target, and various arrangements of rings, etc. (_Figs._ 50-57).
[Illustration: 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 54A. 57A.]
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN ARMY POSTAL SERVICE--China Expeditionary Force--British
Railway Administration in China--Somaliland--The Forbidden
City of Lhassa--Indian Expeditionary Force in France.
The Army Postal Service forms a highly organised branch of the Indian
Army organisation. It dates from 1878-1880, when, during the Afghan
War, a mail cart route was set up between Peshawar and Jellalabad, and
a horse post was conducted thence to Kabul, in all about 176 miles.
Jhelum and Peshawar were also connected by rail, a military transport
train being run by the Post Office between these points. Even earlier
than this date there were postal arrangements for Indian Expeditionary
Forces, including that operating in Abyssinia (1867-68), the type of
postmark being lettered F.F. (Field Force), as in _Fig._ 58.
[Illustration: 58]
The postmarks used on letters despatched from troops accompanying the
numerous Indian military expeditions form a very considerable range
for philatelic exploration. They include Egypt, Miranzi, Kurrum,
Hazara, Waziristan, Suakim, Tochi, Chitral, Malakand, Tirah, China,
Tibet, Somaliland, and South Africa. The system of the Indian Army
Postal Service is similar to that already described for the British
Expeditionary Force on the Continent. A base office is established at
each military base, and works as a head office, communicating with
India and with the field. Field post offices of 1st and 2nd class are
attached to brigades, divisional troops, and divisional headquarters,
and these fly a distinguishing flag by day and display a distinguishing
lamp by night. The establishment of base and field offices varies
according to the size of the force which they are to serve, but
ordinarily the establishment of a base office is: 1 postmaster, 2
deputy postmasters, 15 clerks, 2 khalassis, 6 packers, 1 sweeper.
First class field post offices are accompanied by 1 postmaster, 2
clerks, 1 packer, 2 tent khalassis, and 1 sweeper, while for second
class field post offices the establishment consists only of a
postmaster, a packer, and a sweeper. In addition there are supervising
officers for each division, and in the event of the post office making
its own arrangements for transport between the base and the field
offices, a number of overseers are required. The officers and men all
have the word "POST" in brass letters on the shoulders of their
uniforms.
Postage stamps of India (including postcards and embossed envelopes,
both ordinary and "official") are stocked by all field post offices,
and ordinarily a six-months' supply is sent out with the force, and is
distributed from the base office to the field post offices. It is part
of the duty of the base office to see that each field office maintains
a sufficient stock of stamps, in accordance with a minimum determined
by the chief superintendent in respect of each field post office.
In 1900, in connection with the Boxer Troubles in China, Indian troops
were despatched to assist with contingents from all the Powers in the
relief of the Legations, and with them went their Army Post Office.
Since the settlement of the troubles a permanent Legation Guard has
been maintained by the Indian Army in China. On reaching China, the
Indian Army Post Office established its base at Hong Kong, but this
was temporarily shifted to Wei-hai-wei on account of objections raised
by the Postmaster-General of the British colony of Hong Kong. The new
base did not prove satisfactory, however, and ultimately Hong Kong
became the permanent base, and the Army Post Office worked in
harmonious co-operation with the British Post Office and the Chinese
Imperial Post. Field post offices were set up at Pekin, Tientsin,
Shanghai, Stonecutters' Island, Wei-hai-wei, Tongshau, Matao,
Ching-Wang-Tao, Yangstun, Tongku, Sinho, Hanku, Shan-hai-Kwan, and
many other points, sometimes consisting of a couple of tents, but
often during this campaign in more substantial structures, and even
(according to Mr. Ashley C. Vernieux) in the Temple of Heaven at Pekin.
With the troops sent to China in 1900 the Indian Post Office started
the supply of specially overprinted Indian stamps, so that stamps
bought in China could not be subject to speculation and sale in India
by reason of varying rates of exchange. The Queen Victoria stamps
then current, values from 3 pies to 1 rupee were overprinted with the
initials C.E.F. (China Expeditionary Force), and the successive issues
of Indian stamps have been similarly overprinted for the use of the
troops still maintained in China (_Figs._ 59-61.).
[Illustration: 59 60 61 62 63]
The postmarks used on the expedition were _Fig._ 62 for the
base office, and _Fig._ 63 for the advanced base, similar marks
inscribed at top "_FIELD P.O. No._ ..." or "F.P.O. NO. ..." or single
line circular marks inscribed F.P.O. (_Figs._ 64, 65). There are also
a single-line circular date mark of the base office, and registered
marks (_Fig._ 66).
[Illustration: 64 65 66 67]
Fig. 67 illustrates the postmark of the present base post office of
the Indian troops in China, located at Tientsin.
On the suppression of the Boxer rising the troops of the Allies were
in occupation of Chihli, and the Pekin Shanhaikwan railway was divided
up between the English, Japanese, Germans and Russians. By February,
1901, the administration of the whole of the line was in the hands of
the British, but it was under the control of a Board consisting of a
British director and two deputies, one German and the other Japanese.
At this period the Allies had about 100,000 men in Chihli, but the
British troops were stationed at various stations on the line. To
facilitate the prompt delivery of the letters of these British troops,
the postal superintendent of the British force applied for a sorting
van to be attached to the train so that letters could be dealt with
_en route_.... To this application the reply was that no concession
could be given to the British which was not given to all the other
forces, and that as the service was then restricted to one train a day,
such a concession might result in the train consisting largely of mail
vans. But to meet the general convenience, subject to the British
postal authorities undertaking to receive and deliver the letters of
all nationalities posted at the stations or in a box attached to the
van, thus making the service international, a van was placed at their
disposal from April 20, 1901. The new facilities were announced in the
circular, of which a facsimile is given (_Fig._ 68), and the extra fee
was collected by surcharging and selling a number of ½ cent Chinese
stamps "B.R.A. 5 Five Cents" in black or green (_Fig._ 69). The B.R.A.
stands for British Railway Administration.
[Illustration: 68]
DIRECTOR OF RAILWAYS: CIRCULAR No. 15 d/ 15: 4: 1901.
BRITISH RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION.
RAILWAY POSTAL SERVICE.
1.--In order to allow of letters being posted up to the latest
possible time, it has been arranged, with effect from the 20th
April, 1901, to open post offices at the Railway Stations
at Peking, Tientsin, Tongku, Tongshan and Shanhaikwan. These
offices will open an hour before the advertised time of
departure of the trains carrying the mails and will close ten
minutes before the trains leave.
2.--Only ordinary letters will be accepted at these post
offices. Registered or insured letters cannot be accepted, nor
can newspapers or parcels.
3.--The letters should in all cases have affixed to them the
same stamps, or be franked in the same manner, as if they
were going through the post in the ordinary way. The Railway
Postmaster will therefore accept letters stamped with the
stamps of any nationality with post offices now in Northern
China, and the stamp will indicate the nationality of the post
office to which the letter will have to be handed over for
delivery, or further transit, at the end of the railway
portion of the journey. Unpaid, underpaid, and unfranked
letters will be accepted, but they will be liable to all
penalties now existing, and unpaid and unfranked stamps will
also run the risk of misdelivery.
4.--The letters must be handed, _together with a fee of five
cents for each letter_, to the Railway Postmaster at any of
the stations above named. This five cents is a late letter fee
and is in addition to the ordinary postage.
5.--The Railway Postmaster will then affix the Railway stamp,
and will retain the letter for posting in the train. The
Railway stamp will not be issued to the public to affix
themselves, nor will the Railway Postmaster accept any letters
with the Railway stamp already affixed.
6.--This service can be used for letters to Europe or any
country over sea.
The trains carrying mails leave the stations as detailed
below:
Peking to Tientsin 8.28
Tientsin to Peking 12.00
Tientsin to Tongku 7.20
Tongku to Tientsin 9.10
Tongku to Tongshan 9.50
Tongshan to Tongku 8.30
Tongshan to Shanhaikwan 7.30
Shanhaikwan to Tongshan 8.47
J. R. L. MACDONALD.
[Illustration: 69]
About the same period India had military post offices with the troops
engaged on the Swat frontier and against the Waziris. Field Post
Office No. 25 was the office at Camp Khar on the Swat Frontier, Nos.
5A and 22 were respectively at Zam and Jani Khel in connection with
the blockading of the Mahsud Waziris (_Type of Fig._ 70).
[Illustration: 70]
Indian stamps were also used by the forces engaged in the Somaliland
campaign of 1903-4, at first without overprint, of which the following
are types of the postmarks (_Figs._ 71, 72):
[Illustration: 71 72 73 74]
and during 1903 stamps of India appeared overprinted for use in
British Somaliland (_Fig._ 73).
Colonel Younghusband's mission to the Tibetan Government was
accompanied by army postal service which set up its base in the Chumbi
valley, and during the occupation of the forbidden city a field post
office was set up at Lhassa. Indian stamps used on this mission are
recognisable by the postmarks of Lhassa, including two mis-spellings
of the name LAHASSA (_Fig._ 74), and LAHSSA (_Fig._ 75).
[Illustration: 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 85A]
The Indian forces in South Africa also had their own postal
establishment, with a special series of postmarks.
In the present campaign the Indian forces are accompanied by
fully-equipped field postal arrangements, and following up the
precedent of the China Expeditionary Force, the Indian Expeditionary
Force in Europe is furnished with a set of current Indian postage
stamps, cards, etc., overprinted I.E.F. (_Figs._ 76-85). The Indian
troops enjoy free postage on unregistered letters and postcards posted
to the United Kingdom, France, and India, but correspondence to all
other countries, such as Switzerland, Holland, Scandinavia, and the
rest of the world has to be prepaid with I.E.F. stamps, as also the
parcels and registered letters for all countries.
The next figure (85A) illustrates the type of base post office mark
used in France, and no doubt similar marks are being used on these
stamps supplied to the Indian forces engaged in Egypt and elsewhere
during the present war. _Fig._ 85B although not definitely identified
is probably an Indian army postmark in use in France.
The first instalment of the "I.E.F." Indian stamps issued to troops
included:
3 pies, grey (Fig. 76), 230,400 stamps.
½ anna, green (Fig. 77), 768,000 "
1 anna, rose-carmine (Fig. 78), 422,400 "
2 annas, mauve (Fig. 79), 204,800 "
2½ annas, ultramarine (Fig. 80) 51,200 "
3 " orange-brown (Fig. 81), 51,200 "
4 " olive (Fig. 82), 51,200 "
8 " purple (Fig. 83), 25,600 "
12 " dull claret (Fig. 84), 25,600 "
1 rupee, green and brown (Fig. 85), 9600 "
and the following supplies of postcards and envelopes.
¼ anna inland postcard, single, 1800 reams
¼ anna inland postcard, reply, 700 "
1 anna international single postcard, 100 "
½ anna envelopes, small size, 1100 "
[Illustration: 85B.]
CHAPTER III.
SOUTH AFRICAN WARS.--Transvaal--Orange River Colony--Krugersdorp--
Kuruman--Lydenburg--Mafeking--Pietersburg--Rustenburg--Schweizer
Renecke--Volksrust--Vryburg--Wolmaranstad--The Union--South
African War of 1914.
[Illustration: 86 87]
TRANSVAAL. The stamps of the Transvaal illustrate the important
changes through which the country has passed during the past forty
years. _Fig._ 86 represents an early stamp of the Republic, while the
next figure (_Fig._ 87) is just one example of several denoting the
annexation of the country by the British in 1877. There are several
types of the "V.R. Transvaal" overprint, as in _Figs._ 88-90.
[Illustration: 88 89 90]
These were followed by stamps bearing the portrait of the British
Sovereign (_Fig._ 91). A great blow to British prestige was struck
in 1881, and the result of the disaster of Majuba Hill was the
establishment of a Second Republic which in its turn overprinted
the Queen Victoria stamps with a Dutch inscription "Een Penny"
(_Fig._ 92), subsequently returning to the original Arms design of
South African Republic stamps (_Fig._ 86).
[Illustration: 91 92 93]
Just before the outbreak of the last South African War in 1899 the
ascendancy of President Kruger had led to the ambition to see his
features depicted upon the postage stamps of his country, and a new
stamp design (_Fig._ 93) was prepared for this purpose, and a
special paper was manufactured watermarked Z.A.R. (Zuid Afrikaansche
Republiek) as illustrated in _Fig._ 94. But the stamp was never
issued, and the quantity of the "Z.A.R." paper was sold and used for
purposes very different from that for which it was prepared. In 1900,
after the late Lord Roberts' march to Pretoria, the contemporary South
African Transvaal stamps came under British control again, and were
issued at first with the overprinted initials of Queen Victoria,
V.R.I. (_Fig._ 95), and later of King Edward, E.R.I. (_Fig._ 96).
These were superseded in due course by the London printed issue of
Transvaal stamps bearing the portrait of King Edward (_Fig._ 97).
[Illustration: 94 95 96 97]
ORANGE RIVER COLONY. On March 17, 1900, Field Marshal Lord Roberts
issued the following
PROCLAMATION.
"Whereas it is deemed expedient and necessary for the welfare
of the Orange Free State that the Postal Service shall be
resumed in the aforesaid Republic as far as circumstances
permit.
"Now therefore,
"I, Frederick Sleigh, Baron Roberts of Khandahar, K.G.,
G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C., Field Marshal and
Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in South Africa,
do hereby nominate and appoint David George Amosi Falck
Administrator of the Civil Posts in such portions of the
Orange Free State as have been or may hereafter be occupied by
British troops.
"And I do hereby order that the Postal and Telegraph Services
shall be resumed in the portions of the aforesaid Republic
already referred to, from the nineteenth day of March, 1900,
under the existing Laws and Conventions of the Orange Free
State, subject to such alterations as may from time to time be
notified.
Given under my hand at Bloemfontein this seventeenth day of
March, 1900.
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
(Signed) ROBERTS,
_Field Marshal,
Commander-in-Chief British
Forces in South Africa._
The Administrator shortly afterwards issued the following
NOTICE.
It is hereby notified for general information that Orange
Free State postage stamps, in use up to the 14th inst., are
no longer valid; surcharged stamps of the same denomination
having been substituted.
(Signed) A. FALCK,
_Administrator._
General Post Office,
_Bloemfontein, March 22nd, 1900._
[Illustration: 98]
The stamps of the Orange Free State were successively overprinted
"V.R.I." and "E.R.I." (_Fig._ 98), and later on new stamps were issued
with the portrait of King Edward (_Fig._ 99).
[Illustration: 99 100]
Cape of Good Hope stamps were also used in the new Colony with a
special overprint reading "Orange River Colony" (_Fig._ 100).
A sixpence blue stamp of the Orange Free State (_type of Fig._ 98) was
in readiness for issue at Bloemfontein when the British forces took
over the control, and a few of these escaped the "V.R.I." overprint.
The stamp is familiar to collectors with the overprint, and strictly
speaking, without the overprint it has no record of postal use.
A type-set label was issued by the Orange Free State early in the
war to indicate the franking of official correspondence probably on
military service. The stamp has a border of fancy type ornament and
simple type inscriptions in three lines "IN DIENST--R.D.M.--O.V.S."
The so-called "Commando Brief" stamp alleged to have franked the
correspondence of burghers on commando is a bogus production.
KRUGERSDORP. The South African Republic stamps alleged to have been
used in this Transvaal town with V.R.I _typewritten_ across them are
believed to be purely fictitious creations.
KURUMAN. During the siege of this town in British Bechuanaland Cape of
Good Hope stamps were overprinted "KURUMAN BESIEGED" and the date, but
they are not fully credited by philatelists as _bonâ fide_ issues.
LYDENBURG. During the temporary occupation of this South African
Republic Town in September, 1900, the stamp commemorative of penny
postage (_Fig._ 101) was surcharged "V.R.I. 1d." and the ordinary
Transvaal stamps were locally overprinted "V.R.I." (_Fig._ 102). The
values are ½d. green, 1d. carmine and green, 2d. brown, 2½d. blue, 3d.
on 1d. carmine and green, 4d. sage green and deep green, 6d. lilac and
green, 1s. ochre and green.
[Illustration: 101 102]
MAFEKING. During the memorable siege of Mafeking, a Bechuanaland town
but under the Cape postal administration, arrangements were made for a
local post, and for occasional transmission of letters to Cape Colony,
Natal, Rhodesia, and the United Kingdom. The postal arrangements of
the town had only been transferred to the Cape Colony shortly before
the siege, a fact which explains the variety of Bechuanaland and Cape
stamps available in the town during the siege. Payment of postage at
the special rates chargeable for the service in the town and
beyond was payable in the stamps of either "British Bechuanaland,"
"Bechuanaland Protectorate," or of the Cape overprinted
"Mafeking--Besieged," and the new value (_Figs._ 103-114). As will be
noticed from the illustrations, the Bechuanaland stamps were
chiefly created by overprinting the name "BRITISH BECHUANALAND" or
"BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE" on English stamps.
[Illustration: 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114]
The foregoing stamps were chiefly used for letters sent by native
runners who had to dodge through the enemy's lines and get either to
Buluwayo in the north or Kimberley in the south. A special penny and a
threepence stamp were prepared by a photographic process in the town,
and these form the most interesting philatelic souvenirs of the South
African War. The penny stamp, designed by Dr. W. A. Hayes, shows a
portrait of Sergeant-Major Goodyear, of the Cadet Corps (_Fig._ 115),
and there are two sizes of threepence stamp, designed by Captain
Greener, the Chief Paymaster, showing a portrait of the gallant
defender of Mafeking, General Baden Powell.
[Illustration: 115 116 117]
PIETERSBURG. This town in the north of the Transvaal provided an
interesting set of type-set provisional stamps during the Boer
occupation, from March until April 9, 1901, when the British troops
occupied the town and district. The stamps, which were but roughly
printed in the office of _De Zoutpansberg Wachter_ in the town, are
inscribed "POSTZEGEL" at top "Z. AFR. REP." at each side, and "1901"
at foot. The value is expressed in figures and word in the rectangular
opening of the frame of printer's rule (_Fig._ 118). The values issued
were ½d. green, 1d. rose, 2d. orange, 4d. blue, 6d. green, and 1s.
yellow, and owing to the crudity of the printing, specialists find a
very extensive range of minor technical varieties amongst this issue
of six denominations.
[Illustration: 118]
RUSTENBURG. After the relief of the British garrison by Baden Powell's
force in June, 1900, the British hand-stamped South African Republic
stamps with the _sans serif_ initials V.R. in violet, the values known
being ½d. green, 1d. carmine and green, 2d. brown and green, 2½d. blue
and green, 3d. purple and green, 6d. lilac and green, 1s. ochre and
green, 2s. 6d. dull violet and green (_Fig._ 119).
[Illustration: 119]
SCHWEIZER RENECKE. This Transvaal hamlet, in which a British force
under Colonel Chamier was besieged from August 19, 1900, to January 9,
1901, overprinted some Cape of Good Hope ½d. and 1d. and Transvaal
½d., 1d., 2d., and 6d. stamps with a handstamp, reading "BESIEGED"
in violet, but this scarcely alters the postal status of the stamps
(_Fig._ 120).
[Illustration: 120]
VOLKSRUST. Here also in June, 1900, a number of Boer stamps were
overprinted "V.R.I." in serif letters. The stamps used for the
overprinting were fiscal stamps of the type of _Fig._ 121, converted
for postal use by the overprint "POSTZEGEL" (postage stamp) (_Fig._
122). The values overprinted V.R.I. were 1d. pale blue, 6d. carmine,
1s. olive-bistre, 1s. 6d. brown, 2s. 6d. purple.
[Illustration: 121 122]
VRYBURG. In November, 1899, the Boers occupied this town in Griqualand
West, and they surcharged some of our Cape Colony stamps in stock
there with the initials of the South African Republic (Z.A.R.) and a
new value (_Figs._ 124, 125, 129).
[Illustration: 124 125]
The town was retaken by the British in May, 1900, and certain
stamps of the South African Republic left behind by the Boers were
overprinted with an English inscription (_Figs._ 126-128).
[Illustration: 126 127 128 129]
WOLMARANSTAD. Occupied by the British in June, 1900, the available
South African Republic stamps having the Dutch name overprinted
"Cancelled" and the addition of the sans serif letters, separated by
hyphens "V-R-I." in blue and red. The values are the ½d., 1d., 2d.,
2½d., 3d., 4d., 6d., and 1s. of the regular South African stamps,
and the 1d. red commemorative stamp, in which, however, the word
cancelled is in a square, script type (_Figs._ 130, 131).
[Illustration: 130 131]
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA. It was fondly regarded as the settlement of
British and Boer troubles in South Africa when the former belligerents
in the Transvaal, Free State, Natal, and Cape Colony combined to form
the Union of South Africa. The opening of the Union Parliament was
commemorated in a special stamp (_Fig._ 132), the first to bear the
portrait of H.M. King George V. after the decease of King Edward.
[Illustration: 132 133]
This has since been followed with a complete issue of Georgian stamps
for the whole of the Union (_Fig._ 133).
SOUTH AFRICA IN 1914. Already we have a first instalment of special
marks used on letters of General Botha's loyal forces against the
rebels, and against German raiders. The first (_Fig_. 134) is the
handstamp struck in violet of an official regimental frank. The
army base and field post offices have their postmarks of the pattern
indicated in _Fig_. 135, and the censor label illustrated (_Fig_.
136) is printed in violet, apparently in sheets which before use
are endorsed with a black mark of concentric circles bearing an
inscription of which only a portion shows on each label, and of which
we have only seen an undecipherable part.
[Illustration: 134 135 136]
All three of these were used on a letter from a member of the South
African Scottish regiment at Luderitzbucht in German South-West
Africa.
CHAPTER IV.
FRANCE--Napoleon's Minister of Posts--The Second Republic--The
Presidency--Empire--French Expeditions to China and
Mexico--Sedan--Metz--Strasburg--The Siege of Paris--Balloon
Post--Pigeon Post--Peace--Military Frank Stamps--The German
Invasion, 1914--Red Cross Stamps--War Postcards and Postmarks.
The postal arrangements of France have been deranged oft-times within
the past century by war and revolution. It is just a century since the
famous episode of the Lavalettes occurred. The Count de Lavalette was
Director of Posts under Napoleon, and in 1814 he did his best to upset
the organisation and fled on the approach of the Allies. The following
year he returned to his post, and after Waterloo he was arrested on
a treason charge and sentenced to the guillotine. The Countess made
desperate efforts to gain the clemency of Louis XVIII., but without
avail. In the end she gained permission to go to her husband in
his prison. She went in a sedan chair with her daughter, and an
old servant of the family. The gaoler left the couple to their last
farewell, and on his return saw the broken-hearted wife assisted out
by her two companions. A little later he approached the Count, who lay
collapsed upon his bed covered in a large cloak, and his face buried
in his hands. It was some time after ere the gaoler discovered that
his prisoner was the lady, and that the Count had got clear away.
French stamps provide a very interesting record of the political
changes in the country, and provide one of the best illustrations of
how stamps demarcate the periods of a nation's history. We have dealt
at some length with this aspect of French stamps elsewhere,[5] and
limit our account here to a short pictorial one. The first French
stamps (_Fig._ 137) are inscribed REPUB. FRANC., and followed in the
wake of the revolution of 1848 when M. Etienne Arago was in charge
of the post office. They were first issued January 1, 1849, after the
election of Prince Louis Napoleon to the Presidency. The head on the
stamp engraved by the elder Barre is not the head of Liberty, as is
commonly supposed, but that of Ceres, the Italian goddess of Agriculture,
who was the same as the Greek Demeter or "Mother Earth," appropriate for
the design of the stamps of a country which is "one of Ceres' chiefest
barns for corn." Napoleon's _coup d'etat_ of December, 1851, was
followed by the issue in 1852 of stamps in which his portrait takes
the place of Ceres (_Fig._ 138). Late in the same year the Empire was
proclaimed, so in 1853 the abbreviated inscription REPUB. FRANC. was
altered to EMPIRE FRANC. (_Fig._ 139). Napoleon's successes in Italy
and elsewhere were acclaimed by adding the victor's crown of laurel
to the portrait on the stamps in 1863 (_Fig._ 140). His various
expeditions are marked for the collectors in a most interesting range
of Army postmarks, used in the Crimea, China, Mexico, etc., and of
French stamps used in the French post offices in the Levant, similar
to the British ones described in chapter I., and now rendered obsolete
by the closing of the post offices in October, 1914, as a result of the
"abolition of the capitulations." The Mexican expedition, largely
owing to the Civil War troubles in the States, led to the placing of
Emperor Maximilian on the throne of Mexico, and to the issue of stamps
of the Mexican Empire bearing that ill-fated ruler's portrait (_Fig._
141).
[Footnote 5: "All About Postage Stamps." By Fred J. Melville. London,
1913. T. Werner Laurie, Ltd.]
[Illustration: 137 138 139 140 141]
The Franco-German War has left the stamp collector an interesting
series of stamps catalogued as Alsace and Lorraine (_Fig._ 233), but
more properly called the stamps of the German Army of Occupation,
as they were used in the parts of France occupied by the German Army
during the war and afterwards in the two annexed provinces until
superseded by the German Imperial issues. September 2, 1870, witnessed
the surrender of Napoleon to the Prussians at Sedan, and in November
we find the head of Ceres recur on the stamps lithographed at Bordeaux
during the siege of Paris (_Fig._ 142).
[Illustration: 142]
This period is undoubtedly the most interesting one in modern postal
history. There is a vast array of Army postmarks of the war, special
postcards issued by the auxiliary committee of the Red Cross at
Strasburg, letters sent from Metz during the siege by free balloons,
and letters sent by a variety of ingenious methods from Paris. M.
Steenackers was the Director of Posts under the republic
proclaimed September 4, 1870, and his endeavours to maintain postal
communications between Paris and the outer world are among the most
fascinating of postal records. A cable was laid under the Seine to
Rouen, but the Germans dragged the river and destroyed it. Telegraph
wire had to be smuggled into the country, as the Swiss Government
declared it to be contraband. Letters were enclosed in different forms
of hollow spheres and thrown into the river; the spheres were flanged
so that they would rotate with the current. Hundreds of gallant
messengers, ladies as well as men, strove to reach the city with
concealed messages, mostly without success. One lady is said to have
succeeded in getting through with a letter which had been secreted in
a hollow tooth and the tooth stopped with gold. Even dogs were sent
with messages to Paris, but most of them were shot by the enemy. The
chief means of sending letters out of Paris was the balloon post,
and almost the only messages received within the city came by carrier
pigeons. There were free balloons and passenger balloons, a higher
rate of postage being charged for the latter. Letter sheets, etc.,
were issued for both services inscribed "PAR BALLON NON-MONTE," or PAR
BALLON MONTE. A register was kept of the services of aeronauts during
the siege.
The messages sent by pigeons were at first written in very small
handwriting, but afterwards they were photographed in microscopical
minuteness, so that a very large number could be carried by one
pigeon. These photomicrographs were projected on to a screen by
means of an optical lantern to read and transcribe the messages when
received in Paris. The films were placed in tubes attached to
the pigeon's tail. One pigeon arriving in Paris January 28, 1871,
delivered 40,400 messages by this means.
The later and more peaceful history of France has been typified on
its stamps by M. Jules Sage's allegory (_Fig._ 143) representing Peace
clasping hands with Commerce across the world by means of the post,
and by the late M. Roty's pleasing Semeuse or Sower design (_Fig._
144).
[Illustration: 143 144]
By a law promulgated February 9, 1900, a long discussed project to
allow soldiers and sailors serving with the colours a limited
free postage was brought into operation. Each man coming under the
description was allowed to send two letters a month free, and by
another law of December 29, 1900, the _Franchise Militaire_ stamp
system was introduced. These were at first the then current 15 centimes
stamps with the overprint F.M. (_Fig._ 145); their distribution is in
the hands of the military authorities, who allow two stamps a month to
each private or non-commissioned officer in the Army and Navy, enabling
them to send two letters not exceeding 20gr. free of postage. The two
types of the 15 centimes "Rights of Man" issue exist with the F.M.
overprint, issued in 1901 and 1903 respectively (_Figs._ 145, 146), and
the succeeding Sower type (_Fig._ 147) appeared in 1904. When the French
inland postage rate was reduced from 15 centimes to 10 centimes, April
16, 1906, the 10 centimes stamps were overprinted F.M. instead of the
15 centimes, two of the Sower types of 10 centimes value receiving the
overprint F.M. respectively in 1906 and 1907 (_Figs._ 148, 149).
Since January 30, 1912, these stamps have been used on the official
correspondence of the French civil service as well as by the military.
[Illustration: 145 146 147 148 149]
After forty years the fair fields of France are once again ravaged by
the German invaders, and already our allies across the channel have
issued special stamps which serve the double purpose of denoting postage
and of collecting small contributions to the French Red Cross. The
following is the official decree:
Le Président de la République Française.
Sur le rapport du Ministre du Commerce, de l'Industrie, des
Postes et des Télégraphes,
Décrète:
Article premier.--Il est créé un timbre-poste spécial, dénommé
"Timbre de la Croix-Rouge Française." Le public aura la
faculté, dans le régime interieur seulement, d'utiliser ce
timbre qui vaudra affranchissement jusqu'à concurrence de 10
centimes seulement.
Art. 2.--Ce timbre-poste est vendu 15 centimes. La différence
entre le prix de vente et le valeur d'affranchissement,
déduction faite de la remise réglementaire de 1p. 100, sera
versée à la Commission institutée par le décret du 8 août,
1914, au ministère de la Guerre, sous l'autorité du service
de santé militaire et avec le concours des Sociétés formant la
Croix-Rouge française.
Art. 3.--Par mesure transitoire et en attendant l'impression
du nouveau timbre, le public aura à sa disposition des
timbres-poste ordinaires à 10 centimes, portant en surcharge
le signe de la Croix-Rouge et le chiffre 5.
Art. 4.--Le ministre du Commerce et le ministre des Finances
sont chargés, chacun en ce qui le concerne, de l'execution du
présent décret.
Fait à Paris, le 11 août, 1914.
R. POINCARE.
Par le Président de la République:
_Le Ministre du Commerce, de l'Industrie, des Postes et des
Télégraphes_,
GASTON THOMSON,
_Le Ministre des Finances_,
J. NOULENS.
[Illustration: 150 151 152]
As indicated in the decree, the first stamp (_Fig._ 150) was only of
provisional character, the ordinary French 10 centimes stamp
being surcharged "+ 5c", and selling for 15 centimes, two-thirds
representing the postage, and one-third the Red Cross contribution.
This was issued on August 18, 1914, and in all 600,000 were printed
before the definite Red Cross stamp (_Fig._ 151) was issued on
September 10. The Principality of Monaco has also issued a similarly
overprinted stamp for the French Red Cross (_Fig._ 152), and yet
another of this class of stamp has been issued for the French
Protectorate in Morocco (_Fig._ 153).
[Illustration: 153 154]
Special postcards have been furnished to the French troops and
there is a special postcard for the use of the public in writing to
soldiers. They are decorated with the flags of the Allies in colours,
and the first kind, "Modèle A," bear instructions to the effect
that "This card must be handed to the Quartermaster. It must bear no
indication of the place of sending nor any information relating to
military operations, past or future. Otherwise it will not be
forwarded."
On "Modèle B" (_Fig._ 154), for the use of the public, it is stated
that "if it is to be forwarded immediately the card shall contain
_personal news_ only." Messrs. Alfred Smith & Sons report the
existence of an unofficial imitation of "Modèle B" sold in the
streets of Paris. It differs from the genuine variety in the following
details:
(i) The flags are misplaced so that the French flag leans over
to the right, instead of being vertical;
(ii) The red and blue colours are shaded with black lines
only, instead of white and black lines;
(iii) The ruled line at the back is plain, instead of being
composed of square dots.
There is also a variety of plain letterpress cards, headed
"CORRESPONDANCE MILITAIRE--REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE--CARTE POSTALE", and
other textual inscriptions, or in some cases with only the first two
words, with an arrangement of space for the address.
[Illustration: 156]
Many military postmarks have already been noted by collectors in
connection with the present campaign, but it is too early yet to
arrange them with proper regard to their use and significance. One
interesting episode is marked by the postmark of the Central Military
Postal administration of Paris (_Figs._ 155, 156). This establishment
accompanied the French Government when the latter moved to Bordeaux on
September 3, and continued to use the postmark inscribed Paris there,
so that impressions of _Fig._ 155 bearing dates between September 3
and October 13 (the date of the return to Paris) originated not in
Paris, but in Bordeaux.
[Illustration: 155 157 158 159 160 161 162]
A somewhat pathetic interest attaches to the mark _Fig._ 157
indicating "LIEU DE DESTINATION ENVAHI" (place of destination
invaded), and it appears that Tours has been a temporary centre for
civil correspondence undeliverable to parts of the country which have
been invaded (_Figs._ 158-160).
_Figs._ 161-168 represent various types of army postmarks, regimental
franks, etc., being used during the present campaign.
[Illustration: 167 168 163 164 165 166 167 168 169]
CHAPTER V.
RUSSIA--War Charity Stamps--Portraits of the Tsars--War Stamps
of 1914--Japan--War with China--The Empress Jingo--Triumphal
Military and Naval Reviews--Kiao-chow--Belgium--King
Albert--Bombardment of Malines--Private Postal
Service--Germanised Posts--Red Cross Stamps--Bogus
Stamps--Postmarks--Serbia--"Death Mask" Stamps--King
Peter--Montenegro--King Nicholas.
RUSSIA. The Empire of the Tsars has provided collectors with a few
stamps of philanthropic interest in connection with its wars. A set of
four denominations was issued in 1905 and sold at 3 kopecs per
stamp in excess of the face-value, this extra sum going to the fund
organised by the Imperial Women's Patriotic Union for the benefit of
orphans of soldiers and sailors who fell in the war with Japan. The
following are the descriptions of the stamps which were printed by the
Imperial Printing Office at St. Petersburg in the delicate colour
work for which that establishment is justly celebrated; the figure in
brackets denotes the price, in kopecs, charged for each, including the
3 kopecs charity contribution (_Figs._ 167-170):
3 (6) kopecs, red-brown, cerise, and yellow-green.
5 (8) " violet, red-lilac, and buff.
7 (10) " dark blue, pale blue, and rose.
10 (13) " dark blue, pale blue, and orange.
[Illustration: 170]
Normally the stamps are perforated 12 × 12½, but the 3 (6) kopecs exists
perforated 13, 13½; 11½; and a compound of these two measures. The 7
(10) and 10 (13) kopecs also exist perforated 13, 13½. The stamps
appear to have been designed by Richard Sarring, an artist attached to
the great printing works of the Russian Government. The subjects
represented are--
3 kopecs. Monument of Admiral Nachimoff at Sebastopol,
a hero who was wounded in the
Crimean War.
5 " Monument to two national heroes of the Tartar
dominion, Minin and Pascharski.
7 " Statue of Peter the Great.
10 " The Kremlin, with statue of Alexander II. in
the foreground.
The small doles of 3 kopecs per stamp collected in this manner for the
orphans' fund yielded about 50,000 roubles, roughly £5600.
The portraits of the Tsars never appeared on the stamps of Russia
until 1913, when a very fine portrait and view series of stamps were
issued (_Figs._ 171-187), and although not issued as war stamps
they are full of reminiscence of the three centuries of the stirring
history of the Romanofs.
The set begins with a picture of Peter the Great, after a portrait
by the Dutch painter De Moor, on the 1 kopec stamp. There is another
portrait of Peter on the 4 kopecs stamp, this one being copied from
an engraving of the picture painted by Kneller to the order of King
William III., and now at Hampton Court. Czar Alexander II. figures
on the green 2 kopecs stamp, and Alexander III. is portrayed on the 3
kopecs. The present Czar, Nicholas II., appears on the 7 kopecs brown,
the 10 kopecs blue, and the highest value in the set, viz., the 5
roubles (1 rouble = 2s. 1½d.). A portrait of Catherine II., after
the painter Skorodoñmow, and another of Elizabeth II. after Tchemesow,
add two more to the list of illustrious females in the stamp
collectors' portrait gallery. These are on the 14 kopecs green and 50
kopecs brown, respectively. The other Czars depicted are Nicholas
I. (15 kopecs), Alexander I. (20 kopecs), Alexei Michaelovitch (25
kopecs), Paul I. (35 kopecs), and last, but actually the first and
founder of the dynasty, Michael Feodorowitch (70 kopecs).
On three of the rouble values are views which include The Kremlin at
Moscow (1 rouble), the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg (2 roubles),
and the Romanof House (3 roubles).
[Illustration: 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184
185 186 187]
Early in the course of the present war the Russians invaded East
Prussia, and it is reported that they were using Russian stamps in
that country, but up to the time of writing, examples have not come to
hand. The only special marks yet noted in this country from Russia are
various censor marks and labels (_Fig._ 188).
[Illustration: 188]
In this war philatelic history is repeating itself, for Russia has
issued a new set of war charity postage stamps (_Figs._ 189-192) for
a fund organised by the Imperial Women's Patriotic Union, of the face
values 1 kopec, 3, 7 and 10 kopecs, each of which sells for one kopec
more than the franking value denoted. The extra kopec goes to the
fund, which is to relieve distress among widows and orphans of
soldiers and sailors killed in the war (see _Frontispiece_).
[Illustration: 193 194]
JAPAN. The rapid modern rise of our Far Eastern Ally to power is
marked upon a few interesting stamps of a commemorative character.
Japan's successful war against China (1894-95) was commemorated by an
issue of four stamps in 1896. These are of two denominations, each of
which is in two varieties, an outcome of an Eastern etiquette which at
a later date was evinced in the stamps of the Republic of China.
The Japanese stamps in question portray two heroes of the war; the
denominations were 2 sen and 5 sen, but that there should be no
suggestion of any inequality in their admiration for the two heroes,
the Japanese postal authorities had two stamps of each denomination
prepared so that each warrior figured on a 2 sen and also a 5 sen
stamp. Thus neither could be regarded as being valued higher than the
other, and neither could be said to be given greater prominence. One
of the portraits (_Figs._ 193, 194) is that of the late Marshall,
Prince Arisugawa Taruhito, chief of the staff of the Army of the
Japanese Empire, and the other (_Figs._ 195, 196) is the late
Lieutenant General Prince Kitashirakawa, Commander of the Imperial
Guards engaged in the subjugation of Formosa.
[Illustration: 195 196]
At a later date, 1901, there was a proposal to commemorate the
services of the late Lieutenant General, and a 3 sen stamp was
announced; its design was to comprise the imperial crest (the
chrysanthemum) and a Formosan Shinto Shrine. The stamps were
heralded as about to be issued in time for the festival of the Shrine
celebrated at Taipeh on October 27 and 28, 1901.
In 1905, as the outcome of Japanese military successes in the East
against China and Russia, full administrative control was taken over
Corea, and a special stamp of the value 3 sen was issued to mark the
amalgamation of the Japanese and Corean postal services.
Yet another pair of stamps commemorates somewhat ancient history; they
were issued in 1908 and bear the portrait of the Empress Jingo-Kôgô
(_Fig._ 197), who is stated to have been Regent from 201 to 269 in
lieu of her son Ojin. She waged a victorious war against Corea. The
legend goes that the god Sumiyoshi acting as pilot for her on the sea,
caused gigantic fishes to surround the boat and keep it afloat when a
great storm threatened to send the ship to the bottom.
[Illustration: 197 198 199]
The next two stamps (_Figs._ 198, 199) were issued on April 30, 1906,
to mark, according to the inscriptions the "Campaign of the 37th and
38th years of Meiji. Memorial Postage Stamp of the Triumphal Military
Review--One Sen five Rin" (or, for the higher value--Three Sen). In
the centre is a trophy of arms, including a field gun, rifles, and
ammunition, and the Imperial flag, the Crest or Chrysanthemum, within
a wreath of rice plant and pine. In the spandrels are the five-pointed
stars, badges worn by the Japanese soldiers.
[Illustration: 200]
Two years later a great naval review was held at Kobe, and although no
special adhesive stamp was issued, a quaint postmark representing the
bow of a battleship was used (_Fig._ 200).
[Illustration: 201 202]
The stamps already mentioned under Japan have only a commemorative
association with war. In 1910 the 3 sen carmine stamp then current
was specially overprinted with Japanese characters (_Fig._ 201),
signifying war or field service. These were prepared for and issued to
the Japanese military and naval forces in China and Corea, and it is
very probable that the Japanese forces recently co-operating with the
British at Kiaochow used stamps of this kind, but with the overprint
on the new 3 sen stamp illustrated (_Fig._ 202).
BELGIUM. Brave little Belgium, whose King is the outstanding hero
of the present war has not hitherto had any occasion to provide
collectors with war stamps since the first Belgian issue of adhesive
postage stamps in 1849-50 with the portrait of Leopold I. (_Figs._
203, 204). But the German invasion, and the gallant efforts to
frustrate it, have left their mark imperishably in the stamp album.
The last current ordinary stamps of Belgium were in four designs by M.
Ed. Pellens, a professor at the Antwerp Académie des Beaux Arts, and
these included a good portrait of King Albert (_Figs._ 205-208).
[Illustration: 203 204 205 206]
These stamps were manufactured at the Belgian State Stamp-printing
factory at Malines, and as the factory was destroyed in the
bombardment of the town late in August, it is unlikely that more of
these stamps will be printed. The Belgian authorities had been
preparing a new issue of stamps before the war, and had ordered
machinery in England, which at the time of writing is not delivered,
but which will probably be delivered to the Government at Havre, where
temporary arrangements will be made to supply Belgian stamps to the
inhabitants of the small part of the country not in the hands of the
enemy, and incidentally to be ready to reorganise the Belgian postal
system as the Germans get driven further and further back to their
own country.
[Illustration: 207 208]
Early in September, 1914, it was reported that a private postal
service was working between Ostend and Blankenberghe, and Brussels,
Namur and Nivelles at a charge of 1 franc per letter, but no
information is yet to hand of any special stamps or postmarks being
used in connection with the service.
[Illustration: 209]
The Germans have conducted the posts in Belgium with a view to the
requirements of their own countrymen in the temporarily conquered
land, and incidentally to make profit out of the Belgians and out of
philatelists. There will no doubt be many interesting curiosities in
the postmark line arising from the Germanisation of the names on the
cancelling cachets, such as Lowen (Louvain), Lüttich (Liège), Kales
(Ostend), etc. But the chief philatelic interest attaches to the issue
of special stamps, or rather the ordinary German stamps, overprinted
in Gothic type "Belgien", and with the currency surcharged in centimes
(_Fig._ 209). Of these there are four denominations, 3 centimes on 3
pfennig brown, 5 centimes on 5 pfennig green, 10 centimes on 10
pfennig red, and 25 centimes on 20 pfennig blue.
The Belgian Government authorised the preparation of stamps for
collecting funds for the Red Cross, and these made their appearance
on October 3, 1914. There are two sets of three values--5, 10 and 20
centimes. The set in the smaller size portrays King Albert (_Figs._
210, 211), and the larger size stamps bear a picture of a monument
commemorating the Belgian War of Independence, 1830 (_Figs._ 212,
213).
[Illustration: 210 211 212 213]
The Belgian Red Cross stamps were for some time rather difficult to
obtain, as it appears that the stock was left behind at post offices
to which the Belgian authorities have not had access since their
removal to Havre. Undoubtedly vast numbers of these stamps could
have been sold in England and elsewhere had they been procurable from
Belgian sources.
[Illustration: 214 215]
The interest aroused in the Belgian Red Cross stamps, and the
difficulty in obtaining them, has probably been responsible for the
attempt to exploit collectors with a set of three labels purporting
to be "new Belgian stamps, sold in Flanders only during two days.
The emission was very small, only 15,000 series, which were paid the
double of the nominal value, i.e., 70 centimes." The "stamps" are
figured 5 (green), 10 (red) and 25 (blue), but no "c" or centimes.
They bear within a fancy frame lettered BELGIQUE at top and BELGIE
below portraits of King Albert and his Consort (_Figs._ 214, 215).
Messrs. Alfred Smith & Son submitted these "stamps" to the Belgian
postal administration, and were told that not only are they not
official stamps, but that "they have apparently been obliterated
with a stolen or forged date-stamp." The "postmark" reads ROULERS--5
OCTO--18-19--1914.
The Belgian Government moved to Havre in France on October 13, 1914,
and there they have a special post office using the postmark _Fig._
216. The headquarters of the habitations of the Belgian Government are
reckoned part of Belgium, and while the Belgians may send letters to
their different addresses in Havre or to Belgium, for the unit rate of
10 centimes (1d.), letters for France, even for another part of Havre,
are treated as foreign letters, and require to be prepaid at the 25
centimes (2½d.) rate.
There are also Belgian military postcards at present in use by the
soldiers, and a variety of military postmarks, of which _Fig._ 217 is
an example.
[Illustration: 216 217]
An interesting trio of covers has been received from a young marine
who was with the Naval Brigade at Antwerp. The first, dated October 6,
1914, has the postmark (_Fig._ 218).
[Illustration: 218 220]
On the 11th he was evidently interned in Leeuwarden (_Fig._ 220)
Holland, his letter being censored (_Fig._ 39). On the 27th he wrote
from Groningen, where most of the naval brigade men were interned. The
letter has the Groningen machine cancellation, and _Fig._ 221 struck
in violet:
PORTVRIJ
FRANC DE POST.
Militaires étrangers
internés dans les Pays-Bas.
[Illustration: 221]
SERBIA. Revolutionary disturbances have assisted the changes of the
stamps of Serbia. Michael Obrenovich III., who figures on the issue
of 1866, was assassinated on June 10th, 1868, by the friends of the
abdicated prince, Alexander Karageorgevich. Milan IV., his successor,
had a troublous reign; during his period the country was recognised
as a kingdom with Milan as king, but he abdicated in 1889 in favour of
Alexander, his son. The portraits of Milan and Alexander figure on the
stamps of their respective reigns, and in the case of Alexander we
get one of those philatelic issues which must imprint on our minds the
memory of notable or notorious events. It is within the memory of
most of our readers that Alexander and his consort, Queen Draga, were
assassinated by a number of military officers in 1903, and the house
of Karageorgevich once again ruled in Serbia in King Peter, the
present monarch. At the time of the assassination a new series of
stamps bearing the portrait of Alexander was in readiness for issue,
but before they were sent out under the new _regime_ the effigy of the
murdered king was almost completely obliterated by the overprinting of
a design of the Serbian Arms (_Fig._ 222).
[Illustration: 222 223 224]
The year following the grimmest of all the royal tragedies of Serbia
the surviving dynasty commemorated its centenary, and issued perhaps
the most sensational stamp series known to collectors. These will go
down to posterity as the "Death Mask" stamps, although the curiosity
of artistry which led to this designation probably owes more to the
excited imagination of the Serbian and foreign public than to any
gruesome intent on the part of revolutionary artists.
The Coronation stamps of King Peter, issued September 21, 1904, are
of large size, and in two designs, by G. Janovic. M. Mouchon was the
engraver, and the stamps were printed at the French Government Stamp
Printing Factory in Paris. The names of the designer and engraver
appear in microscopic letters below the design of each stamp. The
first design (_Fig._ 223) shows a medal on which the profile of the
new King Peter is superimposed upon the profile of the founder of the
dynasty "Kara," or Black George. The names inscribed upon the medal
are KARA GJORGJE at left, and PETAR I. at right. To the left and right
of the medal respectively are the centennial dates 1804-1904, and
below are the Serbian Arms, with the motto SPES MIHI PRIMA DEUS. Along
the top of the stamp in Sclavonic characters is KRALJEVINA SRBIJA
(Kingdom of Servia), the value in PARA is in the lower left corner,
and the word POSHTA in the lower right corner. This design was used
for all the para values.
For the higher values in dinar (_Fig._ 224), the same frame design
is used, but for the medallion what may have been the reverse of
a Coronation medal is shown. This is reputed to be an allegory
representing the successes of the guerilla leader Kara-George,
founder of the dynasty against the Turks in 1804. There is a minute
inscription on the medallion below the picture signifying THE DAWN OF
LIBERTY, 1804.
These stamps were at first received by collectors with disdain and
some disgust; the memory of the tragedy of June 10th, 1903, was still
too fresh to allow the world to join readily in any jubilation over
the centenary of a dynasty which had been dragged from obscurity after
many years, to occupy a throne lately emptied by the foul hands of
assassins. It is even said that the early sales of the stamps were
entirely disappointing. But this was all changed from the moment
rumours of a cunning intrigue attached themselves to the issue.
It is probably--almost certainly--an accidental effect produced by the
drawing or engraving of the two heads, one over the other, that they
produce in more ways than one, other composite "faces." By masking the
lower part of the profile of Kara George it is possible to distinguish
a new face with an ugly gashed brow; but the alleged "Death Mask" of
Alexander is seen by turning the stamp upside down, and regarding that
portion of the inverted profiles which may be marked off in triangle
fashion with the chins as the base of the triangle. There is certainly
a curious and hideous effect, but similar, if less ghastly, artistic
curiosities occur in numbers of other stamps, and in many other forms
of pictorial representation, and in the case of the Serbian Coronation
issue it is probably pure accident. _Fig._ 225 represents the current
type of Serbian stamp, with a military portrait of King Peter.
[Illustration: 225 226 227 228 229 230 231]
MONTENEGRO. Tsar Nicholas of Montenegro has not given us any special
war stamps, but the warrior King's portraits, at various stages in his
career appear on the stamps issued in 1910 for his jubilee. The 1 para
shows him as he was during his student days in Paris (_Fig._ 226), the
2 and 20 paras show him with his bride at the date of their marriage,
1860 (_Fig._ 227). The other values show various portraits of the
King, including one of him on a charger leading his troops to battle
(_Fig._ 228).
CHAPTER VI.
The Enemy's Stamps--Germany--Austria--Bosnia--Hungary--Turkey.
GERMANY. In postal arrangements for armies in the field Germany has
shown earlier organised war posts than any of our Allies. As with the
regular postal systems on the Continent, their early history is bound
up with the records of the princely house of Thurn and Taxis, of which
house Count Roger set up in 1460 the first horse post between the
Tyrol and Italy. About 1535 Johann Baptista von Taxis created the
first field post offices operating with the armies of the Emperor
Charles V. against the Turks and in Italy. The hereditary monopoly
which the Thurn and Taxis family enjoyed from the fifteenth century
continued well into the nineteenth, the last remnant of it being
purchased from the family by Prussia in 1867 for three million
thalers.
The growth of Prussian dominion and the fusion of the German States
into one vast empire is well demonstrated in the stamp album by the
joint Austro-Prussian issues for the conquered Danish duchies, by the
disappearance of the States from the list of separate stamp
issuing countries, replaced at first by stamps of the North German
Confederation, and later by stamps of the German Empire.
The stamp collection plainly shows the modern progress of military
Prussia to the lead in the Germanic countries. Collectors have many
interesting postal relics of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 in the
form of Feldpost Brief, and the Franco-Prussian War brought about the
first special war stamps issued by Germany for the use of their armies
of occupation in Alsace and Lorraine, and in the invaded parts of
France (_Fig._ 233). Of this campaign there are also the "Feldpost
Brief," and the then novel form of communication by postcard was also
adopted for military purposes in the "Feldpost correspondenz karte."
From the foundation of the Empire the stamps show little change.
Being a collection of sovereign states it has never been regarded as
appropriate for the Kaiser's portrait to figure on the stamps as King
George's does on most of the stamps of the British Empire. The German
stamps to-day bear a female head (_Fig._ 234) drawn by Paul Waldroff
after a representation of "Germania" by an actress Fräulein Anna
Führing, which so impressed the Kaiser that he adopted this as the
symbol of Germany on its stamps. On modern high value German stamps
there are pictures of more war-like interest. The 2 marks stamp shows
an allegory of the Union of North and South Germany from a painting by
Anton von Werner, with the motto "SEID EINIG, SEID EINIG" (be united,
be united!); the 3 marks (_Fig._ 235) shows a group of German princes
with the Kaiser on horseback at their head, a scene drawn by W. Pape
of the unveiling of the memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm I. The highest
German stamp denomination, the 5 marks (_Fig._ 236) shows another group,
with the present Kaiser prominent in it. This is also by Pape, and
represents one of those spectacular appearances which the Kaiser has
revelled in, the delivery of an address on the anniversary of the
reconstitution of the German Empire. The motto "EIN REICH, EIN VOLK,
EIN GOTT" (one kingdom, one people, one God) is one which, as we now
know, may be carried too far!
[Illustration: 233 234 235 236]
Since the outbreak of the present war the German armies have no doubt
provided a great deal of new material for philatelic study, and a
recent number of a stamp journal published in the Fatherland tells us
that collectors there are zealously following the development of the
German Field Post Offices, adding the following information:
There is a lot of interesting material already, not only with
regard to the printed forms used in the Field Mail Service,
but also with regard to the Field Post cancellations, Troop
Letter cancellations, and Censor postmarks. The correspondence
coming from the garrisons very rarely bear a Field Post
cancellation, and it is generally cancelled with ordinary
town postmarks like the mails of troops still at home. Besides
this, there is, occasionally, a censor Troop cancellation;
to the latter also belong the Lazarett cancellation (hospital
service), of which we have seen several that were interesting.
Lately, a large number of pieces of mail have been coming
from troops in the enemies' country, without postal
cancellations--owing to strategic reasons--which is much to
be regretted from the view-point of the collector. In the near
future, the working out of German Field Post cancellations of
the war of 1914 will be an exceptionally thankful philatelic
report. We will only mention the news that France had issued
several occupation stamps which were said to have been used
during the occupation of Muelhausen. A collector in Muelhausen
wrote to us about this mythological issue of stamps, that the
French, during both occupations, have neither used their own
stamps, nor have they organised any kind of postal service.[6]
Belgium, as already noted in Chapter V., has been provided with stamps
of the Germania type overprinted "Belgien" and the value in centimes
(_Fig._ 209). These have, no doubt, been issued in enormous quantities
with the hope of raking in shekels not only from the Belgians and
from German stamp collectors, but also from collectors and curiosity
hunters in neutral countries. Although there are plenty to be had in
Switzerland, Holland, and other neutral countries at about sixpence
the set of four, it is extraordinary to relate that in one or two
isolated cases British dealers have obtained and sold supplies at very
fancy prices. As in the case of the similar issue so called "Alsace
and Lorraine" of 1870-1871, there will be plenty to go round, and it
will be time enough when the Huns have ceased from troubling us to
gather these relics into our albums as memorials of Germany's trail
through the beautiful towns of Belgium. In any case it is inadvisable
to buy any unused stamps originating in an enemy country since the
outbreak of the war, as they represent a clear contribution to the
enemy's Treasury.
[Footnote 6: Incidentally the German journal, _Berliner
Briefmarken-Zeitung_, in a very moderate article on the war's effect
on the stamp trade, states that German collectors are buying up
Belgian, Serbian, and Montenegrin stamps, evidently in the "opinion
that these countries will become non-existent."]
[Illustration: 237 238 239]
Very few postmarks of the present war have so far reached us from
Germany, but _Fig._ 237 is a type of the Field Post Office date mark.
_Figs._ 238, 239 are Censor marks, and the next (_Fig._ 240) is the
cover of a letter from a prisoner of war interned at Kissingen.
[Illustration: 240 241 242 243]
AUSTRIA. The stamps of Francis Joseph the Unlucky, who has been on the
throne of Austria since the first Austrian issue appeared in 1850,
do not call for more than pictorial representation here. The general
postage stamps current in Austria were originally issued as a special
series to mark the sixtieth year of the Emperor's reign (1908).
Slightly modified, they were re-issued for the celebration of his
eightieth birthday (1910). The illustrations (_Figs._ 241-257) show
the original issue of 1908 as still current. The portraits are copied
from paintings in the Royal palaces, and the subjects are: 1 heller
(Charles VI.), 2 heller (Maria Theresa), 3 heller (Joseph II.), 6
heller (Leopold II.), 12 heller (Francis I.), 20 heller (Ferdinand).
[Illustration: 244 245 246]
Of the present Sovereign, unluckier than ever in the present war, the
series comprises several good portraits. The 30 heller shows him at
the time of his accession in 1848, the 35 heller a portrait painted
thirty years later, 1878; the 50 heller shows him in the uniform of a
Field Marshal, and on the 1 krone he figures with the insignia of the
Order of the Golden Fleece.
Contemporary portraits appear on the 5, 10, and 25 heller (_Figs._
244, 246, 249), and a particularly fine portrait stamp of large size
is the 10 kronen (_Fig._ 257) printed in deep brown, blue and ochre.
[Illustration: 247 248 249 250 251 252]
The 2 and 5 kronen stamps (_Figs._ 255, 256) respectively present
views of the Imperial palaces Schönbrunn and Hofburg.
[Illustration: 255 256 253 257 254]
On October 4, 1914, two stamps were issued in Austria of a war charity
postal character, selling for 2 heller more than the face value,
the extra 2 heller going to the fund for the widows and orphans of
Austrian soldiers killed in the war. The designs are adapted from the
ordinary 5 and 10 heller stamps (_Figs._ 244, 246) by a lengthening
of the stamps for the addition of the date 1914 (_Fig._ 258). These
although paying postage to the value of 5 and 10 heller, sell at 7 and
12 heller respectively.
[Illustration: 258 259]
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA. The military occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by
Austria under the treaty of Berlin, 1878, was followed thirty years
later by the coup of October 5, 1908, by which the Emperor-King
proclaimed his sovereignty over the two provinces. His portrait first
appeared on a Bosnian stamp of the pictorial series of 1906-7 in
which, incidentally, there are included views of Sarajevo where
occurred the murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand on June 28,
1914, a tragedy which provided a pretext for hastening the German
plans for a world war. In 1912 the Emperor-King's portrait re-appeared
on the stamps of the military postal administration of these provinces
(_Fig._ 259).
The 5 and 10 heller stamps of 1906 giving views of the Pass of Narenta
with a view of the river Prenj, and the valley of Vrba, are reported
to have been overprinted "1914" and surcharged 7 and 12 hellers for
use in collecting 2 heller contributions to the Austrian war fund.
HUNGARY. The stamps of Hungary, in the lower values (_Fig._ 260)
depict the Turul, the mythical bird of the Magyars, which was said to
have been the messenger between them and Heaven, and their guide along
the road that took them into Hungary. When the Magyars proclaimed
Arpad their first King, the Turul perched upon his forehead. Two of
these low value stamps have been, with modifications and overprint,
adapted for selling as war charity postage stamps (_Fig._ 261) at 5 +
2 filler, and 10 + 2 filler. The war inscriptions read "HADI SEGELY"
(War Relief) and on label at the foot, obliterating the original
inscription, "OZVEGYEKNEK ES ARVAKNAK KET (2) FILLER" (for the widows
and orphans two filler). The next illustration (_Fig._ 262) is a
charity postcard from Hungary bearing one of the war relief stamps.
[Illustration: 260 261]
TURKEY. The coming of the Young Turk has completely changed the aspect
of Turkish stamps. They have robbed the collector of a rare illusion,
and we owe them a grudge for it. The picturesque fancies which we
treasure in our memories as the children store up the fables of the
nursery, are dear to us children of a larger growth. But our love of
fantastic lore suffers many a shock. Ever since the first stamps of
the Sublime Empire appeared in the reign of Abdul Aziz, on whom be
Peace, we collectors of stamps (on whom there can be no Peace, for in
stamps there is constancy but in change) have nourished a fond fancy
that pictures and portraits are forbidden to the Muslim, and that
Allah, who is great, and his prophet, Muhammed, have set the Curse
upon such works of Satan.
[Illustration: 262]
Much has been written by philatelists, as well as by Muhammedan
scholars, upon the subject, and the continued philatelic fidelity to
the _Thoughra_ (the Sultan's sign manual) on the Turkish stamps has
ingrained into collectors the belief that the Turks would never
depart from their reading of the law as set forth by Muhammed in this
particular. The verse which, in the Koran, sets forth the alleged
prohibition is transcribed:--
O believers! surely wine and games of chance, and statues, and
the divining arrows are an abomination of Satan's work! Avoid
them that ye may prosper.
The wise men of the East, who have drunk deep of the streams of wisdom
that flow from the Book of Warnings, have read many different
meanings into the verse, and in Turkey it has been taken to imply the
forbidding of all figures, and even the ruminative game of chess is
barred by the strict Muslim. We, of Christian faith, would appear to
have a more emphatic prohibition of the making of pictures in the
translation of the Mosaic law:--
And God spake all these words, saying, Thou shalt not make
unto thee any graven image, or the likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth.
[Illustration: 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276
277 278 279]
Our theologians have not regarded the second Commandment as a
condemnation of the making of pictures, though many an earnest
believer, during the phases of pictorial frenzy through which we have
passed and are still passing, may have regarded the picture paper and
the picture palace as abominations of Satan's work.
The new pictorial stamps of Turkey have dispelled one of the mellow
myths of our cult, a myth which, perhaps, was simply an exaggeration
of a prohibition which is more in common with Western ideas than with
Western practices. For instance, there have been recorded seizures of
pictorial postcards in Turkey, attributed to the Muhammedan law;
but these probably concerned cards which gave offence to Muslim
susceptibilities by their blatant portrayal of the unveiled faces
(_inter alia_) of women. If the prohibition of pictures in the past
has been no myth, and the late departure from precedent is the
result of the advent of the New Turk, then, indeed, the New Turk hath
courage, for each true believer of the Prophet must needs regard every
new-born child, whether a creature of the flesh or of the mind, as a
thing that is touched by Satan.
Yet one other illusion concerning Turkish stamps has been shattered of
recent years. We are told now that the Crescent, so long an emblem of
the Sublime Empire, owes nothing to the moon. The barking of dogs on
the appearance of the moon at the siege of Byzantium may have saved
the city, and the partial eclipse of the orb of night may have aided
the Turks at the capture of Constantinople, but the Turkish Crescent
is no memorial thereof, merely a horse-shoe or an amulet. Professor
Ridgeway says it is the result of the base-to-base conjunction of two
claw or tusk amulets. Says another writer, "There is no historical
evidence that the Turks thought at all of the moon when they adopted a
crescent as their national symbol."
Turkey's first departure from the _Thoughra_ device for its stamps was
in 1913, when a set of crude picture stamps displayed an alleged view
of the new General Post Office at Constantinople (_Fig._ 280). Later
in the same year a finely-engraved set of three denominations, 10,
20, and 40 paras, was issued to commemorate the recapture on July 22,
1913, of the fortress of Adrianople after the Balkan War. The design,
which was engraved in London, shows a view of the Mosque of Selim
(_Fig._ 281).
[Illustration: 280 281]
On January 15, 1914, a fine new set of London-printed stamps was
issued depicting a number of scenes in the Turkish Empire and a
portrait of H.M. Sultan Muhammed V. Incidentally some of the designs
are of warlike interest, notably the cruiser _Hamidieh_ on the 2
piastres (_Fig._ 272), Turkish War Office on the 5 piastres (_Fig._
274), and the forts of the Bosphorus on the 50 piastres (_Fig._ 277).
The vignettes of the full set of the 1914 issue are:
2 paras, mauve. Hippodrome Obelisk.
4 " sepia. Column of Constantine.
5 " purple-brown. The Seven Towers.
6 " deep blue. Leander's Tower.
10 " green. Fanaraki.
20 " scarlet. Castle of Europe.
1 piastre, bright blue. Sultan Ahmed Mosque.
1½ " carmine and black. Martyr's Monument.
1¾ " grey and red-brown. Bathing Fountains of Salem.
2 piastres, green and black. Cruiser _Hamidieh_.
2½ " orange and green. Candilli.
5 " deep lilac. Ministry of War.
10 " red-brown. Sweet Waters of Europe.
25 " dull yellow-green. Suleimanieh Mosque.
50 " rose. The Bosphorus.
100 " indigo. Sultan Ahmed's Fountain.
200 " green and black. Sultan Muhammed V.
[Illustration: 282 283]
In addition there were issued four postage due stamps, one bearing the
warlike "Arms" of Turkey, and the other the Thoughra, or sign-manual,
of Sultan Muhammed V. (_Figs._ 282, 283).
Already the present war, even before Turkey had on its part opened
hostilities, has produced an important effect upon the postal
arrangements of Turkey by the "abolition of the Capitulations" which
took effect on October 1, 1914. The various Powers interested in
Turkey have for many years maintained agencies of their own postal
administrations in Constantinople and other parts of the Turkish
Empire, and these, owing to the untrustworthiness of the Turkish
service, secured the bulk of the foreign correspondence both of
Europeans and Turks. Latterly, Turkey has been endeavouring to compete
more keenly with these rival post offices within its own dominions,
and they have sold specially earmarked stamps to business firms for
use on foreign correspondence at a substantial discount off face
value.
[Illustration: 284 285]
The star overprinted in blue or red (_Figs._ 284, 285) on the current
stamps indicates those sold in this way.
Each of the foreign post offices in Turkey, including our own British
post office, used special stamps. Years ago, when the British office
was first set up, ordinary English stamps were sold, but there were
abuses of the currency values so that it was found desirable to
overprint our English stamps for use in Turkey with either the value
in Turkish currency, or with the word LEVANT, which effectually
prevented any large purchases in Turkish money being exchanged at the
English face value. The Turkish Government has long been trying to
get these foreign post offices closed, but without success until the
outbreak of the present war; they are all now closed, and their stamps
consequently obsolete. The nations having had special stamps for their
post offices in Turkey are:--
Great Britain (closed October, 1914).
France ( " " ).
Russia ( " " ).
Italy ( " " ).
Roumania (discontinued 1896).
Austria (closed October, 1914).
Germany ( " " ).
[Illustration: 286]
A curious set of stamps, never really required for postal duty, was
issued by the Turks during the Graeco-Turkish War of 1898, under
the pretext of being required for the use of the Turkish Army of
Occupation. The Turkish inscription on these odd-shaped stamps (_Fig._
286) reads "Special for Thessaly, that part of the country conquered."
Even at the time these stamps first saw the light in Thessaly, the
Turks were boarding their transports to evacuate the country. Large
remainder stocks have been sold since the evacuation, and extensive
forging of these stamps has been detected.
CHAPTER VII.
AMERICAN WARS--United States--Civil War--Confederate
Stamps--Hispano-American War--Vera Cruz--Canada--Mexican
Revolution--South and Central America.
UNITED STATES. In December, 1860, South Carolina in convention
repealed the act adopting the Constitution of the United States, a
move which was promptly followed by other Southern States, and led
to the American Civil War. On February 18, 1861, a provisional
Confederate Government under Jefferson Davis was set up at Montgomery,
Alabama, with all the appendages of military and civil administration,
including a post office department. The Confederate Government later
moved to Richmond, Virginia, and throughout the long and bloody war
from 1861-1865 the Confederate States maintained a separate postal
service, with separate postage stamps. Judge John H. Reagan was
Postmaster-General.
The United States postage stamps current at the beginning of the war
were the beautiful series of 1851-60, and as large quantities remained
in stock at Southern post offices, these issues were demonetized and
replaced hurriedly by the now rare _première gravures_ of August,
1861, which were promptly superseded by the more finished designs of
September, 1861.
The Confederate States stamps lack the excellence of engraving
and printing of the United States stamps, a deficiency due to the
difficult conditions under which they were produced in the country or
imported from England. But what they lack in this respect is more than
amply compensated by their historic significance and associations. The
home produced stamps were prepared under the stress of invasion;
the foreign manufactured ones and much of the material for the local
productions had to be brought through the blockade. In the annals of
philately there are no more exciting records than those which tell
of the capture of a ship bearing three De La Rue plates and 400,000
dollars worth of Confederate States stamps, which the agent of Davis's
Government managed to throw overboard, or of the despatch (preparatory
to the evacuation of Richmond) of printing press, dies, plates, and
stamps to Columbia, in South Carolina, where they arrived only to be
destroyed in the holocaust following upon General Sherman's capture
of the city. The different designs of the successive issues of
Confederate stamps are shewn in _Figs._ 287-295; their history we have
dealt with at length in "Confederate States of America: Government
Postage Stamps."[7]
[Footnote 7: Melville Stamp Books, No. 19. Stanley Gibbons, Ltd.,
London, 1913.]
Some bogus stamps purporting to have been used in various temporary
services are illustrated (_Figs._ 296-299), including one showing a
fort at Charlestown, and another which purports to prepay "blockade
postage" to Europe.
The postmasters of a number of towns in the Confederate States found
it desirable pending the receipt of stamps from the Confederate
Government to prepare and issue provisional stamps of their own to
denote prepayment of postage. Among these are some of the rarest
postage stamps known to collectors; the best authenticated issues
emanated from:--
Athens and Macon in Georgia; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in
Louisiana; Beaumont, Goliad, Gonzales, Helena, Independence,
and Victoria in Texas; Bridgeville, Greenville, Grove Hill,
Livingston, Mobile and Uniontown in Alabama; Charleston and
Spartanburg in South Carolina; Lenoir in North Carolina;
Danville, Emory, Fredericksburg, Greenwood, Jetersville,
Lynchburg, Marion, Petersburg, Pittsylvania, Pleasant
Shade and Salem in Virginia; Kingston, Knoxville, Memphis,
Nashville, Rheatown, and Tellico Plains in Tennessee; and New
Smyrna in Florida.
[Illustration: 300 301]
The war with Spain produced a considerable effect upon stamp issues;
but the war tax stamps which were very popular with young collectors
by reason of their bearing a picture of the battleship _Maine_
(_Figs._ 300, 301) were in no sense postage stamps, though often
affixed to letters as small contributions to the war funds. Throughout
the campaign there were many United States military postal cancellations
used in Cuba (_Fig._ 302), Porto Rico (_Fig._ 303), and the Philippines
(_Fig._ 304), and United States postage stamps were later overprinted
for these and other former Spanish colonies, e.g., Cuba, Guam,
Philippine Islands and Porto Rico (_Figs._ 305-307). These have since
been replaced by definite issues for the Republic of Cuba, and for the
Philippines.
[Illustration: 287 288 289 290 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 302 305
303 306 304 307]
The United States stamps offer a very wide field for association with
war interest, many of them bear portraits of warrior heroes, and their
cancellations in connection with expeditionary forces cover a wide
range of territory from the neighbouring and troublesome republic of
Mexico (where the United States recently used its own stamps at the
post office of Vera Cruz) to China.
[Illustration: 308 309 310 311]
CANADA. Our great North American dominion gave us a patriotic Empire
stamp a few years ago to mark the introduction at Christmas 1898, of
Imperial Penny Postage (_Fig._ 308). It shows a map of the world on
Mercator's projection with the British possessions coloured in red,
and with a line quoted from Sir Lewis Morris's jubilee ode, "We hold
a vaster Empire than has been." The "bumptiousness" of the quotation
led _Punch_ to suggest a few alternatives:
We are richer than anybody.
We are Tremendous Swells.
The Policeman outside Mansion House is the finest in the world.
Our fleet can smash all the rest.
Mind your eye!
By Jingo, if we do--!!!
Go to Jericho!
The difficulties of printing a map of the world in colours within the
space of a postage stamp led to "minor" geographical inexactitudes,
such as the annexation by the red colour, of the United States, the
invasion of France by England, and the removal of the Cape of Good
Hope out into the sea. But unlike the Dominican Republic's map stamp
of 1900 it did not lead to complications with other countries.
Canada's Quebec Tercentenary issue includes some stamps of martial
interest (_Figs._ 309-311), the 5 cents shows the French Governor
Champlain's house in Quebec, round which a wide ditch was dug and
breastworks were thrown up and cannon mounted to protect the colonists
from the savages. Generals Wolfe and Montcalm are portrayed on the 7
cents, the 10 cents shows the old city and fort of Quebec in 1700, and
the other denominations show incidents in the exploration of Canada
and portraits of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, and of King George
and Queen Mary.
[Illustration: 312 313]
MEXICO. Mexican stamps from 1856 to the rise of Porforio Diaz
demonstrate some of the political changes through which the country
has passed, from Republic to Empire, and back to Republic. Revolution
has brought about provisional stamps of a rare order, such as the
Guadalajara, Chiapas, and Campeche stamps of 1867-1868, and the more
recent issues of the "Constitutionalist" party for Sonora (_Figs._
312-314) and Tamaulipas (_Fig._ 315).
[Illustration: 314 315]
_Figs._ 316, 317 represent ordinary Mexican stamps commandeered and
overprinted by the rebels.
[Illustration: 316 317]
Martial portraits figure on the stamps of many of the South and
Central States; to mention them all would require a goodly sized
dictionary of American biography. In addition, specialists find much
interest in tracing, by extra-territorial postmarks, the movements
of troops in the various wars between Brazil and Paraguay, Chili
and Peru, etc.; and many of the countries give us scenes recording
outstanding incidents in their histories, especially on their issues
commemorative of the centenary of their freedom from the Spanish yoke.
Chili, for example, depicts the battles of Chacabuco, Roble, Maipo,
the sea fight of April 27, 1818, between the _Lautaro_ and the
_Esmeralda_, and another ending in the capture of the _Maria Isabella_
on October 28. In this series also is a portrait of the renowned
Admiral Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald, who organised the
Chilian Navy and played a great part in Chili's struggles for freedom
from Spain.
Ecuador's issue of 1896 marks the end of a period of civil strife and
the triumph of the Liberal Party, a portion of the proceeds of the
sale of the stamps being devoted to the destitute families of soldiers
killed while serving in defence of the Liberal cause.
[Illustration: 318 319]
Colombia gives us a number of stamp designs of war-like interest,
including warrior heroes, and a crude picture (_Fig._ 318) of the
cruiser _Cartagena_. A particularly bitter commemoration of the
centenary of the independence of Colombia in 1910 was the picturing
on a registration fee stamp of the wholesale executions ordered by the
Spanish victors at Carthagena on February 24, 1816. (_Fig._ 319). To
this stamp objections were raised by the Spanish Minister at Bogota,
and in deference to his protests it was withdrawn from circulation.
Guatemala displays its Artillery Barracks (_Fig._ 320). The much
disturbed Dominican Republic warns off possible invaders by displaying
the fortress of Santo Domingo. Its map issue of 1900 (_Fig._ 320A),
owing to a dispute over the boundary indicated nearly led to war with
the Haytian Republic. Hayti shows the fortress of Sans Souci (_Fig._
321). Peru having had its stamps much overprinted by the Chilians in
1881-1883, vaunts more peaceful subjects on its recent picture stamps,
e.g., its General Post Office, Municipal Institute of Hygiene, and
the Lima Medical School. Uruguay, after its civil war of 1904, added
a "peace" overprint to its contemporary stamps, reading PAZ-1904. It
also illustrates the fortress and port of Montevideo, and its cruiser
of the same name on its issues of 1908 and 1909 (_Fig._ 322), and
Venezuela has given us crude sketches of the revolutionary steamer
_Bankigh_ (_Fig._ 323), and a map stamp illustrative of the great
boundary dispute with Great Britain.
[Illustration: 320 320A 321 322 323]
Brazil also furnishes examples of stamps specially furnished to
soldiers and sailors for use on their letters home in war-time. These
were printed by a stationer in Rio de Janeiro and were used during the
war with Paraguay 1865-1870. The army franks are inscribed EXERCITO
(Army), and those for the sister service ARMADA (Navy).
CHAPTER VIII.
Miscellaneous Wars and Commemorations.--Patriotic Empire
Stamps--Victoria--New Zealand--Barbados' Nelson Stamp--A
Dutch Naval Commemoration--Balkan Wars--Greece--Albania--
Epirus--Bulgaria--Roumania--Italy--Portugal--Spain--Mysterious
Melillas--China.
[Illustration: 324 325]
Australasia has not had much occasion for war stamps, but it is worthy
of note that at the time of the South African War Victoria issued two
postage stamps of patriotic designs, obtained in public competition.
The Victoria Cross design (_Fig._ 324) gained the prize for the penny
stamps and the prize for the twopence stamps was awarded for the other
design (_Fig._ 325) showing a picket on foot and armed scouts scanning
the horizon of the open veldt in the Transvaal, whilst in the distance
are the faint outlines of the hills which the British have had to
scale. The central figures in the latter design are in the uniform
of the Victorian contingent. These stamps sold at 1s. and 2s. each
although they only prepaid 1d. and 2d. postage respectively, the
balance going to the Patriotic Fund.
[Illustration: 326]
In connection with the same campaign New Zealand issued in 1901 a
stamp printed in a khaki colour to commemorate the sending of a New
Zealand contingent to the war. The stamp (_Fig._ 326), designed by Mr.
J. Nairn of Wellington and engraved in New York, pictures the part of
the contingent sent as New Zealand's response to "the Empire's call."
Barbados marked the centenary of the battle of Trafalgar by an issue
of stamps depicting the "first monument erected to Nelson's memory,
1813" (_Fig._ 327). The monument is in the capital of the Colony,
Bridgetown, but its claim to be the first erected to Nelson's memory
is contested.
Another naval hero, Michael A. de Ruyter, Admiral-in-Chief of the
Dutch Fleet, is commemorated on a set of stamps of Holland issued in
1907 for the ter-centenary of his birth. This design, in addition to a
portrait of the Admiral, depicts a battle at sea (_Fig._ 328).
[Illustration: 327 328 329]
The recent Balkan Wars (1912-13) would require a volume to describe in
detail the philatelic results. Two Greek stamp designs commemorate the
victories of the troops allied against Turkey. One shows the cross
of Constantine over the Acropolis and city of Athens and the Bay of
Salamis; the other depicts the eagle of Zeus flying over Mount Olympus
with a snake in its talons. _Fig._ 329 shows the design of two war
charity stamps sold for the benefit of Greek soldiers incapacitated in
the campaign, and for the widows and orphans of the killed. Greece
overprinted stamps very lavishly for territories occupied during the
war. When the fleet occupied Mytilene the Greek authorities overprinted
the Turkish stamps they found there with a Greek inscription rendered
"Greek occupation--Mytilene." Lemnos was furnished with Greek stamps
overprinted LEMNOS in Greek characters, and many other places were
provided with Greek stamps overprinted with an inscription signifying
"Greek Administration." In Samos four issues of new stamps appeared in
1912-1913, and Icaria's Independent Government stamps prepared just
prior to the Greek occupation were overprinted "Greek Administration."
[Illustration: 330 331]
Albania's separate stamp issues were an outcome of the Balkan Wars.
The first were created in 1913 by overprinting Turkish stamps with a
device of a double-headed eagle and the word SHQIPENIE (_Fig._ 330).
Since then four or five new issues have appeared, crude labels of
circular handstamp pattern (_Fig._ 331) with the value typewritten.
More recently a series has appeared depicting Skanderbeg, the warrior
hero of the Albanians, and these were overprinted in March, 1914, with
an inscription "_7 Mars. 1467._ rroftë mbreti. 1914" to commemorate
the arrival of Prince William of Wied as Mpret. The year 1467 was the
date of the death of Skanderbeg.
[Illustration: 332 333 334]
The "autonomous state of Epirus," another outcome of the Balkan
troubles, has given us some quaint stamps. The first was the skull
and cross-bones issue (_Fig._ 332), the inscriptions on which read
"Liberty or death--Defence of the fatherland--Lepta 10." This was
succeeded by a more ambitiously designed stamp (_Fig._ 333) showing
an evzone or light infantryman in the act of firing. The simple name
"Epirus" was extended to "Autonomous Epirus" (_Fig._ 334). Other
crude issues have appeared in Epirote districts, as yet not very
satisfactorily authenticated. These include Koritza (_Fig._ 335) and
Moschopolis (_Fig._ 336), both places in lower Albania.
Another curious provisional is one for Gumuldjina (_Fig._ 337) in the
vilayet of Adrianople.
[Illustration: 335 336 337]
Crete's troubles may be ended with the final settlement of the Turks;
in its stamps since 1898 we see the influence of the British, Russian
and Greeks, and a remarkable range of revolutionary stamps. On one
modern stamp of 1907 (_Fig._ 338) is depicted the landing of Prince
George of Greece at Suda on his appointment as High Commissioner.
He is being received by Admirals of various Powers, Noel of Great
Britain, Skrydloff of Russia, Pottier of France, and Bettolo of Italy.
A still more recent stamp of Crete shows the fort at Suda, and was
issued to celebrate the raising of the Greek flag on May 1, 1913.
[Illustration: 338 339 340]
On two stamps of 1901 commemorative of the War of Independence
Bulgaria pictured a cherry wood cannon, a home-made affair used by
the Bulgarian patriots against the Turks, and drawn from one which is
preserved in the national museum at Sofia (_Fig._ 339). The following
year, 1902, the 25th anniversary of the battle of Shipka Pass (August
21, 1877) was the occasion for a set of stamps showing a view of the
ravine with the Bulgars tumbling rocks down upon their enemies (_Fig._
340). Later stamps of this country show some interesting portraits of
King Ferdinand (_Figs._ 341-343) in naval and military uniforms, and
one showing the King with the sceptre in his right hand and the orb in
his left, and wearing the garb of the ancient Tsars of Bulgaria. These
form part of a fine pictorial issue of 1911, and it is noteworthy
that these stamps may be found with Turkish cancellations, used by the
victorious Bulgars in the recent campaign before they could substitute
Bulgarian postmarks for those left behind by the Turks. In 1913 the
pictorial set up to the 25 stotinki, was issued with an overprint in
Sclavonic characters signifying "War of Liberty" to mark the successes
against the Turks.
[Illustration: 341 342 343]
The enlightened Prince Cuza was responsible for the introduction of
many reforms in Roumania, among them being postal reform, with the use
of adhesive stamps, those of 1865 bearing his portrait. He was obliged
to abdicate the year following the issue of the stamps as a result of
a conspiracy. The late King Charles was his successor, there being no
further developments to recall. Rather in this case we read from our
stamps the more peaceful story of the growth of the King's beard. In
commemorating the 40th year of King Charles' reign a long pictorial
series of stamps showed among other pictures Prince Charles saluting
the first shot fired at the Battle of Calafat, the meeting of Prince
Charles and Osman Pasha in 1878, the Roumanian Army crossing the
Danube in 1877, the triumphant entry of the victorious army into
Bucharest, and Prince Charles riding at the head of his Army in 1877.
[Illustration: 344 345]
Italy has given us commemoration portraits of Garibaldi (_Figs._
344, 345), and its war with Turkey in 1911 extended the use of the
overprinted Italian stamps of Tripoli (_Figs._ 346-348). From the
Italian pages of our albums much of the story of the makings of United
Italy may be learnt chiefly by the absorption into one of all the
separate stamp issuing states, Sardinia, Naples, Sicily, Parma,
Modena, Romagna, Tuscany, and, although much later, the States of the
Church. The jubilee of the Union was commemorated by a set of four
fine designs in 1911, one by Signor A. Sezanne showing (_Fig._ 349) a
sword grasped by a hand, symbolical of the Italian Union, and at the
sides are branches of palm in memory of the warriors who died in the
Wars of Independence.
[Illustration: 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353]
Portugal does not offer much war-interest, though plenty of historical
associations, in its postage stamps. The Republic followed so soon
after the assassination of King Carlos that the stamps with the
portrait of the young King Manuel had no long service without a
distinguishing mark to show that the stamps were issued by the
Republican Government (_Fig._ 350). These have since given place to a
distinctive Republican design (_Fig._ 351). It is interesting to note
that the Red Cross Society and the Civilian Rifle Corps in Portugal
have a limited privilege of free postage, for which they use their own
special stamps (_Figs._ 352, 353).
The postage stamps of Spain introduce us to the revolutionary element
in 1868 in which year Isabella II. fled to France as a result of the
revolution under Prim and Serrano. That was in September, and the
current stamps were overprinted before the end of the year with the
words HABILITADO POR LA NACION (authorised by the nation), signifying
that they were now being used under the Provisional Revolutionary
Assembly. One of the forms of overprint reads HALILITADO POR LA JUNTA
REVOLUCIONARIA. Some of the known overprints did not emanate from the
headquarters of the Provisional Government but were added at the order
of local juntas or revolutionary councils. The familiar emblematic
figure of Spain followed on the stamps issued on January 1, 1870.
The republican form of government did not last long, and in 1870 the
Duke of Aosta, second son of King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, was chosen
King of Spain, now a limited monarchy, as Amadeus I., and his portrait
was introduced on the stamps of 1872-73. The tiny ¼c. de peseta stamps
of the former year bear a small design of a royal crown.
Changes at this period followed in rapid succession, and Amadeus
failing to make headway as a constitutional Sovereign resigned his
troublesome crown in February, 1873, in favour of peaceful retirement
in Italy. The little stamps aforementioned were changed under the new
government--this time another form of republic--to shew a mural crown
in lieu of the royal one, and the portrait of Amadeus gave way to an
emblematic figure Peace in July, 1873. Peace! What most desire, but
few can obtain and keep. Nor was the next stamp design of Justice
(July, 1874) much less wide of the mark.
There were actually in Spain between the revolution of 1868 and the
restoration of the house of Bourbon three different types of republic,
the limited monarchy under Amadeus, and a military dictatorship. In
1872, too, the pretender Carlos proclaimed himself King of Spain, and
issued the celebrated Carlist stamps from 1873 to 1875. So far as
the general issues of Spanish stamps are concerned, their changes
subsequent to the restoration of Alphonso XII., son of Isabella II.,
are free from further revolutionary changes, but there are postal war
tax stamps of 1874-1879, and 1898 (_Fig._ 354).
[Illustration: 354]
A remarkable instance of planting a bogus set of stamps on collectors
occurred in connection with the Melilla campaign in 1893-1894. In
the set there are 53 or possibly 54 varieties, each for a different
detachment of the Spanish forces. The inventor of the scheme
apparently launched his venture by going about amongst the troops,
sailors, officers, etc., distributing specimens of the stamps he had
conceived in their behoof, and consequently the appearance of some of
the labels on letters emanating from soldiers and others at the
war gave colour to the supposition that these gaudy labels had been
provided by a generous and otherwise unoccupied government at Madrid.
Of the fifty-three stamps, all _except_ Nos. 1 and 2 are perforated.
Nos. 1 to 5 are in design of _Figs._ 355, 356, and were supposed to
have been for the use of the five Army Corps.
The colours are (1) black frame, arms red and yellow; (2) blue frame,
arms red and yellow; (3) as No. 1 perforated; (4) as No. 2 perforated;
(5) black, red, and orange;
[Illustration: 355 (1-2) 356 (3-5) 357 (7-35) 358 (36-42) 359 (43)]
7-13. One for each Regiment of "Cazadores" or Chasseurs, the name of
the Regiment on each stamp.
14-35. One for each Regiment of Foot, with the name of a Regiment on
each stamp.
36-42. One for each warship, the name of a ship on each stamp.
43. Commissariat Department.
44. Civil Guard; a disciplinary Corps, half military, half police, à
la Royal Irish Constabulary.
45. Staff.
[Illustration: 360 (44) 361 (45) 362 (46) 363 (47) 364 (48) 365
(49-53)]
46. Engineers.
47. Artillery.
48. Medical Staff Corps.
49-53. One for each Fort; name of the Fort on each stamp.
[Illustration: 366 367 368 369]
China's troubles during the Boxer rebellion were reflected in the
stamp album by the "C.E.F." stamps of India (see Chapter II.) and by
the use of the stamps of several of the Powers co-operating in the
defence of the Legations. The revolution of 1912 made its mark in the
overprinting of the Imperial stamps with various republican overprints
(_Figs._ 366, 367) and the revolution when completed was commemorated
by two sets of stamps issued in November 1912; one set bears the
portrait of Dr. Sun Yat Sen in a frame in which are unripe ears of
wheat, and inscribed "in commemoration of the _revolution_" (_Fig._
368); the second set bears the portrait of President Yuan Shi Kai, and
in this set the ears of wheat are ripe, and the inscription reads "in
commemoration of the _republic_" (_Fig._ 369).
Although not issued in connection with warfare, it may be noted that
the only separate postage stamps of Heligoland appeared while the
island was in British possession (_Fig._ 369A). Since its cession to
Germany in 1890 the islanders have used German stamps.
[Illustration: 369A.]
CHAPTER IX
THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1915. CHECK-LIST OF NEW STAMPS.
At New Year, 1915 it is too early to show more than a few of the first
philatelic signs of the great world war which is being waged between
Great Britain,
France,
Russia,
Japan,
Belgium,
Serbia,
Montenegro,
Germany,
Austria-Hungary,
Turkey.
But the developments are already full of significance, and the
stamps of each of the countries at war acquire a new interest in the
occasions for their extra-territorial use as the armies invade the
territories of their opponents. At the beginning of August the Germans
invaded France and Belgium, accompanied, or followed shortly, by field
postal organisations, of which few particulars are yet available.
By the middle of August the French had entered Alsace and German
Lorraine, and the Russians having invaded East Prussia set up posts
there in which they used the current Russian stamps. The British
Expeditionary Force, with its well-equipped Army Postal Service, was
in France by the 16th. About this period the Germans invaded Cape
Colony. The Tsar's promise of autonomy to Poland may ultimately
demonstrate its fulfilment in the issue of new stamps for Poland.
France issued its first Red Cross stamp, and similar war charity
stamps have since appeared in Monaco, French Morocco, Russia, Austria,
Hungary, and Bosnia. Japan's declaration of war, and successful attack
on Kiaochow, probably led to the use of Japanese soldiers' stamps
(_Figs._ 201, 202) by the forces engaged, possibly along with Indian
stamps overprinted C.E.F. (China Expeditionary Force, _Fig._ 61),
for the use of the co-operating British land forces. On the 26th the
British along with the French took Togoland, and have already issued
stamps of the Anglo-French occupation of that former German colony
(_Figs._ 384-386). Prior to their issue the British Gold Coast stamps
were used in Togo for a time (_Fig._ 370). Towards the end of the
month the bombardment of Malines destroyed the Belgian State
Stamp-printing works, rendering it necessary to create an entirely
new series of Belgian stamps when the Government finds itself in a
position to do so. On the 29th Samoa was taken by the New Zealand
forces, and English stamps have been used there (_Fig._ 371), and
already a provisional and a definitive set of British Samoa stamps
have appeared (_Figs._ 382, 383).
[Illustration: 370 370A. 370B. 371 372 373]
German attacks in September on various British and French colonial
possessions may in some cases leave philatelic records, chiefly in
the way of war postmarks which may be looked for from the affairs in
Nyasaland, British East Africa, Zanzibar, German South-West Africa,
etc. Postmarks, too, record the withdrawal of the French Government
to Bordeaux (_Figs._ 155, 156), and the sending of great loyal
contingents from Canada (_Fig._ 372) Australia, and New Zealand
(_Fig._ 373). The effect on stamp issues caused by Turkey's abolition
of the capitulations has already been referred to as rendering a
considerable number of stamp issues obsolete, and this event has been
commemorated on the Turkish issue, which, by the way, was printed
in London. Australia's capture of German New Guinea and the Bismarck
Archipelago, is already reported to have been followed by the re-issue
of the German colonial stamps of New Guinea (_Figs._ 370A, 370B) with
a British "G.R.I." overprint.
Some postal aspects of the retirement of the Belgian Government to
Havre in October (_Fig._ 216) and the issue of German stamps for
Belgium (_Fig._ 209) have already been referred to.
Turkey's entry into the war in November may have the effect of
removing Turkey from the list of European stamp-issuing States, and
has already led to the long anticipated proclamation of a British
protectorate over Egypt, and the annexation of Cyprus. The fall
of Tsingtau renders obsolete the German colonial type of stamp for
Kiaochow, although there may have been some interesting provisional
issue here, and also possibly in the Marshall and Marianne Islands.
All these and many more happenings of the past few months will leave
their traces in new stamps, or in new uses for stamps, and when at
last the enemy shall be vanquished and Peace reigns once more, one of
the most fascinating histories of the great War will be that recorded
in the pages of the stamp album.
The following is a synopsis, or check list, of distinctive postage
stamps already issued in connection with the war. Issues reported but
not yet seen by or satisfactorily vouched for to the present writer
are not included.
AUSTRIA.
October 4, 1914. War Relief stamps. Current design adapted (_Fig._
258) sold at 2 heller over face-value.
5 heller green.
10 " carmine.
BELGIUM.
October 2, 1914. Red Cross Stamps. Lithographed on white wove
unwatermarked paper. Perf. 13½. White gum.
(a) _Head of King Albert (Figs. 210, 211)._
5c. green.
10c. red.
20c. purple (cross in red).
(b) _Monument design (Figs. 212, 213)._
5c. green (cross in red).
10c. red.
20c. purple (cross in red).
BELGIUM (GERMAN ADMINISTRATION).
October, 1914. Current German Empire stamps, overprinted in black
"Belgien," and new value in Gothic type (_Fig._ 209). Perforated 14.
Issued in Brussels.
3 centimes on 3 pfennig, brown.
5 " 5 " green.
10 " 10 " carmine.
25 " 20 " ultramarine.
BOSNIA.
October (?), 1914. War Relief stamps. 5 and 10 heller stamps of the
1906 issue overprinted 7 and 12 heller, respectively.
7 heller on 5 heller, green.
12 " 10 " carmine.
FRANCE.
August 18, 1914. Contemporary 10 centimes stamp, surcharged "+5c." in
red (_Fig._ 150).
10c. + 5c. vermilion.
September 10, 1914. Definitive stamp. Sower design adapted,
inscription reading "CROIX-ROUGE POSTES" (_Fig._ 151).
10c. + 5c. vermilion.
FRENCH MOROCCO.
September 1, 1914. Red Cross stamp. The 10 centimes "Rights of Man"
type, already overprinted "10," and native inscription, further
surcharged "+5c." (_Fig._ 153).
10c. + 5c. red.
HUNGARY.
October, 1914. War Relief stamps. The 5 and 10 filler "inundation"
stamps of 1913 overprinted in black in the centre of the stamp "Hadi
Ségély" (War Relief) and on label at the foot, obliterating the
original inscription, "Ozvegyeknek es arvaknak ket filler" (for the
widows and orphans two filler) (_Fig._ 261).
Seventeen values 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, 50 and 60
filler, and 1, 2, and 5 korona.
INDIA EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.
October, 1914. Stamps of India overprinted I.E.F. in seriffed type,
for use with British troops on the Continent (_Figs._ 76-85). Perf.
14.
3p. grey.
½a. green.
1a. carmine.
2a. mauve.
2½a. (Die 2) blue.
3a. brown orange.
4a. olive.
8a. purple.
12a. claret.
1r. green and brown.
MONACO.
October, 1914. Red Cross stamp. Current 10 centimes stamp of this
Principality, surcharged "+ 5c." in red (_Fig._ 152).
10c. + 5c. red.
NEW GUINEA.
October, 1914. Provisional Issue. German Colonial (Ship) type for
DEUTSCH-NEU-GUINEA, overprinted "G.R.I." and new value in English.
(Similar to _Figs._ 374-381.) Perforated 14.
1d. on 3pf., brown.
1d. on 5pf., green.
2d. on 10pf., carmine.
2d. on 20pf., ultramarine.
3d. on 25pf., black and red on _yellow_.
3d. on 30pf., black and orange on _buff_.
4d. on 40pf., black and carmine.
5d. on 50pf., black and purple on _buff_.
8d. on 80pf., black and carmine on _rose_.
RUSSIA.
November 26, 1914. War Charity stamps. Surface-printed at the Russian
Imperial State Printing Works on enamelled surface coloured papers
(_Figs._ 189-192, see frontispiece). Sold for 1 kopec extra per stamp.
1 (2) kopec.
3 (4) kopecs.
7 (8) kopecs.
10 (11) kopecs.
SAMOA (BRITISH).
September 3, 1914. Provisional Issue. German Colonial (Ship) type for
Samoa overprinted "G.R.I." and new value in English (_Figs._ 374-381).
Wove paper, unwatermarked. Perforated 14.
[Illustration: 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381]
½d. on 3pf. brown.
No fraction bar to "½."
Comma after "G.R.I,"
½d. on 5pf. green.
Two small fraction bars to "½."
Comma after "G.R.I,"
1d. on 10pf. carmine.
2½d. on 20pf. ultramarine.
No fraction bar to "½."
Inverted surcharge.
Comma after "G.R.I,"
3d. on 25pf. black and red on _yellow_.
Double surcharge.
4d. on 30pf. black and orange on _buff_.
5d. on 40pf. black and carmine.
6d. on 50pf. black and purple on _buff_.
Double surcharge.
Inverted "9" for "6."
9d. on 80pf. black and carmine on _rose_.
1s. on 1 mark carmine.
Error "1 shillings."
2s. on 2 marks blue.
3s. on 3 marks violet.
5s. on 5 marks carmine and black.
September 29, 1914. Permanent Issue. New Zealand stamps overprinted
"Samoa" in _sans-serif_ type 2mm. high and 14mm. long. The type of stamp
is indicated in brackets (_Figs._ 382, 383). Orange-red overprints for
½d., 2d., 2½d.; and blue for 1d., 6d., and 1s. White wove paper.
Watermarked "N.Z." single-lined and Star. Perfs. various.
[Illustration: 382 383]
½d. green (King Edward).
1d. carmine (Dominion).
2d. mauve (King Edward).
2½d. blue (Pictorial).
6d. carmine (King Edward).
1s. vermilion (King Edward).
TOGOLAND (BRITISH ISSUE).
October, 1914. German Colonial stamps for Togo overprinted
"Togo--Anglo-French--Occupation" in three lines in black (_Figs._
384-386). Wove paper, perforated 14.
[Illustration: 384 385 386]
_(a) Surcharged with new value in pence (Figs. 384, 385)._
½d. on 3pf. brown (no wmk.).
1d. on 5pf. green (wmk. lozenges).
_(b) Without new value (Fig. 386)._
3pf. brown.
5pf. green.
10pf. carmine.
20pf. blue.
25pf. black and red on _yellow_.
30pf. black and orange on _buff_.
40pf. black and carmine.
50pf. black and purple on _buff_.
80pf. black and carmine on _rose_.
1 mark carmine.
2 marks blue.
TOGOLAND (FRENCH ISSUE).
October, 1914. Similar stamps, but with overprint reading
"TOGO--OCCUPATION--FRANCO-ANGLAISE," and new value in French currency.
.05 on 3pf. brown.
10 on 5pf. green.
10pf. carmine.
20pf. blue.
25pf. black and red on _yellow_.
30pf. red and black on _buff_.
40pf. red and black.
80pf. red and black on _rose_.
1 mark carmine.
2 marks blue.
TURKEY.
October, 1914. Current stamps (_see Figs. 263 et seq._) overprinted
(?) in commemoration of the closing of all foreign post offices in
Turkey, as a consequence of the abolition of the Capitulations. The
overprint is in two lines of Turkish characters.
5 paras, purple-brown.
10 paras, green.
20 paras, scarlet.
1 piastre, blue.
2 piastres, green and black.
5 piastres, deep lilac.
10 piastres, red-brown.
_NOTICE._
[This check list of stamps of the war will be revised, continued and
presented as a supplement which will be given away from time to time
with _The Postage Stamp_ (1d. weekly), of all newsagents, or by post
4s. 4d. per annum from the publishers, S. R. Le Mare, 21 Paternoster
Square, London, E.C.]
APPENDIX.
Egypt--Sudan--Morocco--Military Postcards--Additional
Postmarks.
EGYPT.--An event of the greatest interest to philatelists is the
termination of the suzerainty of Turkey over Egypt, and the placing
of the latter country under British protection. As a British
protectorate, Egypt will be transferred to the British Empire division
of the stamp catalogues, and a greatly increased interest will be
taken in the postage stamps of the land of the Pharaohs, with the
result that the earlier issues will rise appreciably in value. As
recently as January 8, 1914, a handsome new series of stamps was
issued in Egypt, on the anniversary day of the accession of the
now deposed Khedive, Abbas II. These were not of a commemorative
character, but were issued on the anniversary as a compliment to the
then reigning Khedive. They probably call for no change in the designs
under the new conditions, and as they are denominated in English the
present stamps may be continued in use. But they will probably be
changed in regard to the watermarked paper on which they are printed,
as the watermarked device is that popularly known as the "star and
crescent" (_Fig._ 387), although modern authorities appear to agree
that the Turkish symbol is not a crescent (_vide_ p. 87). The new
Egyptian flag, under Sultan Hussein I., is red with _three_ silver
crescents each enclosing a star, instead of the Turkish flag with the
single "crescent" and star. Thus although a new form of watermark may
not be deemed necessary, a change to the "multiple" (or as
printers term it, the "all-over") watermark of similar device would
appropriately denote the new regime.
[Illustration: 387 388 389 390]
The designs on the fine series of stamps (_Figs._ 388-397) now current
in Egypt are:--1 millieme, sepia: gyassas or sailing-boats on the
Nile; 2m., green: Cleopatra in the garb and head-dress of the goddess
Isis; 3m., orange-yellow: the Ras-el-Tin Palace in the Muhammedan
quarter of modern Alexandria; 4m., vermilion: the Pyramids of Giza;
5m., lake: the Sphinx of Giza; 10m., cobalt: the two Colossi of
Amenophis III. on the banks of the Nile at Thebes; 20m., olive: the
Pylon or Gateway to the Karnak Temple; 50m., lilac: the Citadel at
Cairo; 100m., slate: the Rock Temple at Abû Simbel, Ipsambul; 200m.,
marone: the Aswân Dam, at the first cataract of the Nile.
[Illustration: 391 392 393 394 395 396 397]
In view of the great future now opening up for British philatelists
in the study and collection of Egyptian stamps, the present writer has
completed a full illustrated history of these stamps for publication
in the "Melville Stamp Books series," published by Messrs. Stanley
Gibbons, Ltd., 391 Strand (_see_ page 2). This will be issued almost
simultaneously with the present volume.
[Illustration: 398]
An Egyptian stamp which might have been included in the body of the
present work is _Fig._ 398, a postage-due stamp issued in 1898. At
that time the Egyptian postal regulations charged 3 milliemes for
prepaid letters but double that sum (6 milliemes) for unpaid letters,
from or to non-commissioned officers and men of the Egyptian Army in
garrison on the frontier, as well as at Suakim and Tokar; the same
tariff was applicable to soldiers taking part in the Expedition to the
Sudan. In consideration of the fact that such soldiers would be most
frequently in places where they would be unable to get postage stamps,
the authorities decided that unpaid letters sent by them should only
be liable to the single rate of 3 milliemes instead of the double rate
of 6 milliemes. But as there was no postage-due stamp of 3 milliemes
to use in collecting this sum, it was temporarily permitted to use a
2 millieme stamp, with half of another 2 millieme stamp divided
diagonally, until the surcharged stamp (_Fig._ 398) 3 milliemes on 2
milliemes could be prepared and issued.
[Illustration: 399 400 401]
SUDAN.--The first stamps of the Sudan were created by overprinting
Egyptian stamps in 1897 for use at the Camp Post Office at Wadi
Haifa, and at points south thereof, the overprint reading "SOUDAN" and
repeated in Arabic characters. The first stamps of special design,
the attractive "camel" issue, also have military associations, being
designed by Colonel Stanton of the Oxford Light Infantry, depicting
a camel rider, alleged to be a portrait of Slatin Pasha. The rider is
carrying mail, and is armed with a rifle and two spears (_Fig._ 399).
These stamps were overprinted for use of army officials either with
the words "OFFICIAL-ARMY" as in _Fig._ 400, or "Army Service" as in
_Fig._ 401. Another interesting Sudanese military stamp design was
used for the military telegraph service (_Fig._ 402).
[Illustration: 402]
MOROCCO.--Following upon the proclamation of Egypt as a British
Protectorate, it was announced that Great Britain has recognised the
French Protectorate in Morocco and has adhered to the Franco-Moroccan
Treaty of March 30, 1912. The French stamps for Morocco (_Fig._ 403)
have now been overprinted "PROTECTORAT-FRANCAIS", as may be seen by
comparing this 10 centimes value with the same denomination utilised
for Red Cross stamp purposes (_Fig._ 153). The change in the status of
Morocco may render the British postal agencies there unnecessary, in
which case the series of British stamps overprinted "MOROCCO AGENCIES"
(_Figs._ 404, 405) may be rendered obsolete.
[Illustration: 403 404 405]
POSTCARDS AND POSTMARKS. The remaining illustrations, added as this
work is being sent to press, supplement the philatelic records of the
present war, as already outlined in the earlier chapters. _Fig._ 406
is the original issue of the French military postcard, on thin green
card. _Fig._ 407 is also French, printed on a thicker Silurian card.
_Fig._ 408 is a German field postcard (medium white) despatched by
a British prisoner of war in the English Lager at Sennelager. A few
additional naval postmarks are also shown (_Figs._ 409-413). _Fig._
409 appears to be in the design of an "Iron Cross" (!) _Fig._ 414 is
a mark used by the censor in handling registered mail, and 415 is on
correspondence originating at a depot for convalescent horses. _Figs._
416-420 are various types of censor marks, No. 419 being a Dutch one
on a letter posted at Maastricht. At the time of going to press we
have noted British military censor marks up to No. 1739. We are also
able to state definitely that _Fig._ 85B (Chapter II.) is a field
postmark of the Indian Expeditionary Force in France.
[Illustration: 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 414 413 415 416 417 418 419
420]
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Irregular and duplicate figure numbering has been retained throughout.
The only intentional changes to the text are where typographical errors
have been corrected as follows:
Page 5, "page 47" changed to "page 49" (in Table of Contents: Chapter
IV ... page 49.)
Page 5, "page 77" changed to "page 75" (in Table of Contents: Chapter
VI ... page 75.)
Page 5, an Appendix starting on p. 122 is not listed in the Table of
Contents.
Page 32, Figure 69 originally on page 32 moved to page 33; appears
as illustration for HTML version and is transcribed as text for this
Plain Text version.
Page 33, note hand-written correction to the poster (Figure 69)
"stamps" should read "letters" (unpaid and unfranked letters will also
run the risk of misdelivery.)
Page 36, missing closing parenthesis added "(Fig. 77)".
Page 45, there is no Figure 123.
Page 45, "129" changed to "128" ("Figs. 126-128".)
Pages 57 & 58, duplicate use of figure numbers 167 and 168.
Page 59, "Womens'" changed to "Womens'" (the Imperial Women's
Patriotic Union.)
Page 70, Figure 221 appears as illustration for HTML version and is
transcribed as text for this Plain Text version.
Page 76, "Fraulein" changed to "Fräulein" (an actress Fräulein Anna
Führing).
Page 87, suspected error in original unchanged: "susceptibilities" for
"sensibilities" (which gave offence to Muslim susceptibilities).
Page 103, "incriptions" changed to "inscriptions" (the inscriptions on
which read "Liberty or death...")
Page 108, in the transcription of the overprint "HALILITADO POR LA
JUNTA REVOLUCIONARIA" it is unclear whether "HALILITADO" is an error
for "HABILITADO" in the typesetting or in the original overprint.
Page 122, "Pharoahs" changed to "Pharaohs" (postage stamps of the land
of the Pharaohs).
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