This article is going to have me come across as an aging bitter old ass. Guilty x 4. Here we have a stamp celebrating an organization with Royal patronage whose mission is remembering the bravery and sacrifice of especially the New Zealand Expeditionary Force a 100 years later. Noble stuff, but it leaves me with sadness at the thought that none of the western countries are united enough to do that again. The connection to who we are and where we come from is just too frayed. In the places we live, we are now the minority, the aging vestige. A big project of this organization is restoring gravestones, so at least there are monuments to what we were. How many are left who even care? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Before we get to that, a note on the visuals of this stamp. At first glance, and second and third, I thought this was a South African stamp, remembering New Zealanders that fought in the Boer Wars. There were some. RSA was how South Africa labeled the stamps. 100 years after the Boer War puts you in the time of the new South Africa, but once in a while they forget Mandela and topicals for a moment and put out a proper Commonwealth issue. This mistake proves that the designer of this stamp is himself not a collector.
Todays stamp is issue A653, a 80 cent stamp issued by New Zealand on February 3rd, 2016. It was a four stamp issue honouring the 100th anniversary of the Remembrances and Services Association. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10.
In 1914, the New Zealand Army was mostly a part time Territorial reserve force with no capabilities to project force beyond New Zealand. Similar to the situation today. The declaration of war by the British Empire immediately saw New Zealand commit to raising two brigades and sending them wherever the British Empire saw fit to use them. A ship convoy taking them and Australians was indeed diverted to Egypt where they camped in their warm European woolen uniforms in sight of the pyramids. Seeking a soft underbelly of Europe they landed in the Dardanelles hoping to make quick work of the Ottomans. Instead they faced a grueling and unsuccessful campaign. New Zealand ultimately sent a force of over 100,000 at a time when the country had only one million. Maori were excluded from the draft and only a few volunteered. The losses to New Zealand were catastrophic. Of the 100,000 sent 16,000 died and 41,000 were injured.
I mentioned that the Maori did less than their part 100 years ago. Indeed there was civil unrest at the prospect of it. New Zealand is now 5 million people but about 30 percent Maori and Pacific Islander and another 15 percent Asian. In the largest city, Auckland, people of any brand of European heritage are a minority. What kind of expeditionary force could New Zealand raise today. When I was in Auckland a few years ago I visited the ANZAC Memorial which is located in a hilly park. Preparing to enter, I saw an Asian jogger use an unknown soldiers monument to adjust his sneaker before going back down the hill. Inside the displays had been reoriented to talk up the few Maori that did serve and room had been converted where a film was shown of a modern Maori girl who is there to tell you how much she is owed. Hint what ever number you have in mind is not enough. An attack in a city called Christchurch, which seem only filled with mosques teaming with people on a work day resulted in the European heritage PM and much of the surprisingly feminized police force wearing Moslem religious attire. The image of her so attired was then broadcast off of the Burj Khalifa highrise in Dubai. The nation bowed down, and not to God.
I hope you don’t interpret this as an attack on New Zealand. The same thing is happening all over the world and seems only to be accelerating. I am not sure anything can even be done anymore about it. Speaking for myself and only myself, I don’t like it.
Well my drink is empty. Hint, I am going to refill it. Come again on Monday when there will be a new story that can be learned from stamp collecting.