Month: October 2021

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Kelantan 1911, the British peal away Siam, for the benefit of Malaya

The British and their trading posts. Still today we work with the deals struck. 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.

The script on todays stamp may be a little bit of a non sequitur. It is Arabic script but the Jawi language. The Jawi language is more common in Kelantan than elsewhere in Malaysia. The emblem on the stamp is no longer used but the area is still ruled by the same line of Sultans as when this stamp was new.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 1 Sen stamp issued by the Sultanate of Kelantan in 1911. It shows the then symbol of the new status of the old government. The stamp was issued over many years in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 in its used state.

Kelantan is on the coast of northeast Malaysia. It is ruled by the Pantani line of Sultans for the last 500 years. Over that time they have had to pledge loyalty to Malaya, Siam, Great Britain, Japan, Thailand, Great Britain again, Malaya again, and now Malaysia. This show a certain flexibility. It is a rural, agricultural area that is among the poorer in the region, although Malaysia today passes through a good deal of petroleum  revenue.

With the same government so long, it is understandable that the region is conservative and traditional. It is a bastion of the most traditional Muslim political party. It is one of the most strict areas for movies et al. This might explain some of the attitude of Thailand toward it.

The late and the first half of the 20th century  Siam gradually shrunk as Britain and France encroached. A treaty was signed between Siam and Britain  in 1910 that gave Kelantan and a few other provinces to Malaya. The British sent in an advisor to the Sultan and did not formally federate the area in the then colony of Malaya.

Kelantan Sultan Mohammad V

The King of Siam Rama V said at the time that he had no interest in these dominions. This may be bluster but the deal helped Siam in several ways. The debts due Siam from Sultanates like Kelantan were now to be paid by Britain. It also included a British guarantee of Siam independence. Siam has also faced a Muslim insurgency virtually continuously and an area with such traditional Muslims would have only strengthened it if it were part of Buddhist modern Thailand.

King Rama V. Now he is more celebrated for ending slavery in Siam

It was Kelantan where the Japanese landed in their Malayan invasion in 1941. They quickly transferred Kelantan to Thailand, an ally. It reverted back to Great Britain post war and was gradually integrated more fully into Malaya in preparation for independence as Malaysia.

As of now, the modern Malaysian state has not moved to remove the regional Sultans. In fact they serve on a commission from which is elected the ceremonial head of state of Malaysia, the Yang di Pertuan Agong. The current head of state Muhammad V is from Kelantan. While serving in this capacity, his younger brother serves Kelantan in a Regency.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Pantani line of Sultans and their longevity. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Mauritania 1938, The French are not staying, so someone should try to make this a country

An area adjacent to an established colony that is predominately nomadic and of a different race should probably be left alone. That is not what the French did, and Mauritania is still paying the price. 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.

This stamp issue honored the French Colonial Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. As such it showed view of local life in Mauritania. As such, it was a break from previous colonial issues that were by and for a colony’s French administrators. These types of stamps became very common in the colonies post war up to the time most achieved independence around 1960.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 3 Centimes stamp issued by the colony of Mauritania in 1938. It was a 34 stamp issue in various denominations. This stamp featured a view of a Mauri camel rider. There was also a souvineer sheet coming out of this issue. As a colonial offering it was around for many years after the exhibition. Including a version that omitted the RF on the stamps as it was issued by the Vichy regime after France fell in World War II. Since these were not actually available in the colony, some collectors consider them inauthentic. This stamp, with the RF present and accounted for, is worth 25 cents according to the Scott Catalog.

A poster for the Colonial Pavilion at the Fair.
A competing Pavilion featuring French aviation technology

Mauritania has a much shorter history than most colonies. It is bordered on the south by the Senegal River and along the river are black Africans that are ethnically, racially and lifestyle wise more with the people of Senegal. As you move north, the area becomes more desert like and the people are more Arabic and Nomadic. Blacks in this area were slaves of the Arabs. The practice among the nomads was not banned until a preposterously late 1980. The Nomads affiliated with rival sheiks most of whom pledged their loyalty to Morocco to the north.

The French involvement was mainly at a few trading posts that profited by selling arms to the various tribes. A French colonial leader tried to pacify the nomadic area but was quickly assassinated and the area was never truly under French control.

World War II saw a large African contribution to the Free French efforts. The Free French armed forces were over half African. As that war wound down, the Africans expected to quickly receive more self government leading toward independence. For Mauritania, independence came in 1960. There was a new capital, Nouakchott that was half way between the African southerners and Arab Nomads up North. The first Prime Minister Moktar Daddah was an Arab and the countries first college graduate, with a French law degree.

Readers can guess what happened next. Daddah banned all other political parties and became President for life. He also turned on his own ethnicity by fighting Morocco on their Saharan desert land claims. He did not fight them well and with the economy tanking he was deposed in a coup and spent the rest of his days in Paris. I wonder when Paris, London, and New York City will tire of hosting these failed losers with their suitcases of grubby, bloody cash.

President Moktar Daddah. Whether the wandering Arab, his black slave, the Senegalese near the river, of the French expat keeping the lights on, who wouldn’t have faith in this guy?

Well my drink is empty and I wonder why it never occurred to France to give the river valley to Senegal and the desert to Morocco and be done with this fake country. That would have cost Daddah his job, but that would have been more feature than fault. Come again  for another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Russia 1958, A popular peasant poet searches for women and the bottle

You have to give credit, a poet only lives to thirty, annoys 3 different governments and 4 wives and still creates enough of a following that his poems are still enjoyed 100 years later. 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.

A good looking guy with sad eyes and ready with a lyrical poem at the ready will be a hit with the ladies. Sergei Yesenin was that. For this reason the postal authority took a little extra effort with the color and staging of the stamp portrait. This is easily seen in comparison to other stamps of the period honoring similar long gone figures.

Todays stamp is issue A1120, a 40 Kopek stamp issued by the Soviet Union on November 29th, 1958. It was a single stamp issue honoring the poet Sergei Yesenin. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents in its cancelled to order condition.

Sergei Yesenin was born south of Moscow in 1895 to a peasant family. His parents worked in nearby cities leaving him to be raised by his maternal grandparents. They steeped him in the Russian tradition of the lyrical poetry that would be recited and sung around rural campfires in then Imperial Russia. He was literate and began writing his own verse young and this talent allowed him to be enrolled in better schools.

Studies in Moscow and Petrograd saw Yesenin in contact with the most famous literary and artistic figures of the day. His early poems were quite religious and his first wife worked at a publisher where Yesenin was also a proofreader. Thus even before age 20 there were poems getting published and read.

The Empress Alexandra described his poems as beautiful but sad and Yesenin said in response the same thing could be said for Russia as a whole. Yesenin was later drafted into the Czarist army but refused to be published in a pro Czar book of poems. He was a man of the left and thought the Kerensky revolution did not go far enough to change Russia. He therefore supported the October revolution although there was some conflict with the urban Jewish aspect of the new regime. The Cheka and NKVD harassed him and saw to it that some of his more political poems were not published. Yesenin had meanwhile deserted the Kerensky Army and left his first wife and took up and married a popular actress of the time. The revolution in Russia had many people  wondering on the future of the institution of marriage and there was already a tradition of women staying in one place while a man takes a new wife in a new place.

Yesenin continued to see his popularity surge and he later took up with an American singer who he met in Moscow. She was 15 years his senior and he followed her back to the USA. He found the USA vapid and materialistic and was soon divorced again and back in Russia. He was also by now drinking quite heavily and his frequent run ins with the police were now more to do with his drinking than his politics.

At 30 he married a last time to the granddaughter of Tolstoy. He also tried to drink less and work on a new collection of poetry. He was found hanged naked in a hotel in Leningrad with a last poem of goodbye written in his blood as he did not have a pen. He was given a full state funeral and there were several suicides among his female fans.

There is speculation that his suicide was staged by the secret police with evidence of a struggle in his hotel room and his blood written poem having perhaps come from the year before. Either way, he died young and left a good looking corps. A good way to add to his mystique. Interestingly at the time of this stamp, 1958, some of his poems were still banned. The full collection was finally published in 1966.

Well my drink is empty and I think I will have a few more while I read a few of Yesenin’s poems translated. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Katanga 1961, Mining out the chaos

Mineral wealth in a small part of Congo was  three quarters of the economy. So when chaos decends after independence a few want to free themselves of that. Not easy to do. 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.

Aesthetically this stamp has a lot to recommend it. There was a feeling at the time that the whole independence of Katanga was a front for Belgian mining interest. So this stamp and a few others take on this by directly showing the native black arts in which locals took pride. Others show natives working and fighting for a better life. One could make the argument that all this flies in the face of reality. But stamp issues are about putting a places best self forward. Katanga’s stamp issues did that well.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 1.5 Franc stamp issued by Katanga on March 1, 1961. It was part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations that depict the artistry of the native wood carvers. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used and what ever denomination the particular stamp is.

Katanga is a province of the formally Belgian Congo. It contains Belgium developed mining operations of copper, zinc, and uranium. The operations of the lucrative mines required much Belgian expertise and the province contained thousands of Belgian expatriates. The revenue from the mines were profitable for Belgium and provided 75 percent of the colony’s budget.

There were a lot of hard feelings at the time of independence. The first prime minister went out of his way to insult the Belgian King publicly during independence ceremonies. This set forth chaos directed at looting any foreign wealth in the country. The looting and even attacks on Belgian citizens had tacit government approval. Responding to this a rival Congolese politician named Moise Tshombe declared Katanga independent from Congo. Congo’s first prime minister was removed from office, taken to Katanga, beaten, killed, and his corps burned in acid until all that remained were a few teeth. Katanga quickly hired white South African and Rhodesian mercenaries to chase off the looting Congo army. The mercenaries were supplemented by a Belgian parachute regiment. The Belgian mining company paid Tshombe 25 million dollars into his personal account from money due the Congo government.

Tshombe while Prime Minister of Katanga

World opinion was just not going to tolerate this. Tshombe’s name was synonymous with sellout in Africa. The United Nations refused to recognize Katanga and even authorized military force to bring Katanga back into Congo. The UN forces sent in were at first not willing to attack. UN Secretary General Dag Hammerjold flew to nearby Northern Rhodesia to conduct negotiations but his plane crashed in mysterious circumstances.

In late 1962, the UN forces finally attacked Katanga after the Belgian army left and succeeded in conquering it. There is a sense of who conquered who though. Tshombe was named Prime Minister of all of Congo and a few of his white mercenary units were incorporated into the army of Congo.

A year later there was a coup and Tshombe went into exile in Spain. He was tried in absentia for treason and sentenced to death. Spain refused to extradite. In 1967, Tshombe attempted to return to Congo on a chartered business jet. A spy from French Intelligence hijacked the plane to Algiers where Tshombe died of “heart failure” at 49.

The mines were nationalized in 1966. The Belgian mining concern ordered their employees back to Belgium. Congo attempted to order them to give a years notice before leaving. A deal was eventually struck but the output of the mines has now dropped to less than 10 percent of previous output. This is entirely due to mismanagement rather than depletion of the resources. Over the years there have been various schemes to get the mines producing again, most recently with aid from China. So far no luck.

An abandoned mine in Katanga

Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I contemplate how the disaster could have been avoided. There is no doubt that the chaos and destruction in Congo lengthened white rule in Southern Africa. At the same time, virtually all the black leaders ended up cruel corrupt fools. No one to toast. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Tannu Tuva 1934, The Russian Commissars Extraordinary have arrived, and brought stamps

Tuva is a small region bordering Siberia and Mongolia in the geographic center of Asia. The people are Buddhist Mongols, and to this day their affiliation is to Russia. The Commissars Extraordinary did their job. 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.

Since the stamps were designed to sell far away to collectors, care was taken to draw in the collector. The Mongol language was included on the stamps, but also English, so young collectors knew what they were looking at. The subject matter was also views of local life, at least how it was viewed by the printers in Moscow. However compared to many topical third world offerings of the recent past, it seems to me quite quaint. There is some question as to whether the offerings were legitimate. Most catalogs recognize them as the stamps were legal for postage in Tuva, and there are examples used as such.

Todays stamp is issue A20, a one Kopek stamp issued by the Tuvan Peoples Republic in April 1934. The stamp displays a horse mounted hunter. The stamp includes the inscription “registered” in English, but was for regular postage. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 mint.

Tannu Tuva was an semi independent country from 1921 through 1944. The Mongol people are of the Tuva tribe and the area lies in the Tannu mountains. During the 19th century, the place changed it’s affiliation to Imperial Russia after previously being affiliated with Mongolia. Mongolia itself at the time was a vassal state of Chinese Manchuria.

In the chaos after the 1917 revolutions in Russia, Tannu Tuva declared itself independent. Since the independence leaders were Bolshevik, there was Russian support. Only the Soviet Union and Mongolia recognized Tannu Tuva’s independence, but this has more to do with remoteness than illegitimacy. Tannu Tuva did begin appearing on world maps.

There was then some intrigue. The first Prime Minister, Donduk Kuular, changed political parties and declared the widely practiced Buddhism the state religion and sought closer ties to Mongolia. This angered Soviet leader Stalin who declared 5 Russian educated Tuvans, “Commissars Extraordinary” and had then return home. Quickly there was a coup and Kuular was removed from office, arrested, and executed. The new commissars purged the government but the country remained itinerant Buddhists and not industrialized. In 1944 at the extraordinary commissar’s request, the country was annexed by the Soviet Union as the Tuvan Autonomous Oblast.

Tannu Tuva Leader Donduk Kuular

The idea for issuing stamps came from Hungarian Bela Szekula. He approached the Soviet Union with the idea. He had previously been involved with a fraudulent stamp issue from Ethiopia. The stamps were printed in Moscow and generated foreign exchange for the Soviet Union. The stamp issues stopped in 1944 and they now use the Russian postal system. In the 1990s and 2000s there were fraudulent Tannu Tuva stamps featuring such topicals as Bart Simpson and the band Led Zeppelin. No catalog recognizes these issues.

Hungarian, later American, stamp dealer Bela Szekula

Tuvan people are fairly unique by being Turkic but also Buddhist. There share this trait only with the “yellow Uyghurs” of China. The country has been about a third Russian but over the last 20 years Russian numbers have declined. The current leader appointed by President Putin is a former wrestler.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another and salute the 4 Extraordinary Commissars, for coming in and fixing everything. Who knew things could be that simple. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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East Germany 1950, Now that we are Red, look who is back and on top

As the Red Army swarmed westward, they had a cadre of exiled Communists ready to take over. 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.

The aesthetics of todays stamp are not the best, A generic old man. President Pieck had been in exile for more than a dozen years when he returned to Germany with the Red Army. That was not his first period in exile. One must wonder than even to communists in East Germany, if he was a stranger.

Todays stamp is issue A10, a 2 Deutsche Mark (East) put out by the German Democratic Republic in 1951. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations honoring East German President Wilhelm Pieck. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $4.75 used.

Wilhelm Pieck was born in what is now Poland in modest circumstances. He first worked as a logger and became active in the trade union and later joined the socialist SPD party in Germany. He was self taught. Him being a Red was difficult because his bride to be’s family was opposed. Since she was with child they consented but demanded a church wedding. Pieck showed up late and handed out communist leaflets as he walked down the aisle to the ceremony. He was part of the militant wing of the SPD that opposed the German World War I involvement. This saw Pieck exiled to Amsterdam during the War. After the war he returned but was one of the leaders of the SPD arrested by the Freikorps. Two other leaders were killed in custody but Pieck escaped into exile in Paris and became a member of the Communist International. It is understandable that with so many personal exiles, Pieck became concerned with the plight of fellow lefty exiles from nations that they had yet to take power. He was a founding partner of the International Red Aid. A red cross for political prisoners involved in class struggle.

The International Red Aid Emblem. The letters refer to the Acronym in Russian. Before Stalin purged it, it had 62 national chapters.

Hitler coming to power saw Pieck and his family again going into exile for 12 years in Moscow. During the later part of these years he helped organize a group of German exiles ready to govern a new communist Germany. He was instrumental in merging two older left parties into the Unity Socialist Party of East Germany. He was named the first and only President of East Germany. By then he was quite old, even older than Adenauer, the West German leader.

Pieck served into his death in 1960 at age 84. By then he had outlived his wife by 50 years and suffered from two strokes and cirrhosis of the liver. In his last years he maintained a summer home on the grounds of Carinhall, Hermann Goering’s infamous hunting lodge. Both a world away and back home for the one time logger.

Well my drink is empty and Pieck has probably emptied the bottle. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Canada 1938, Go west young Francophone

If French speakers were going to have a large voice in the affairs of Canada, they needed to move beyond Quebec. 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.

Todays stamp shows the front gate of an historic fort. In showing it as Manitoba’s representative in a series of historic place stamps, Canada tips it’s hand as to which side it was on in the conflict the fort represents. The Quebec issue of this series buttresses that point by showing a governor’s mansion built for French governors but the used by mainly British ones.

The stamp today is issue A91, a 20 cent stamp issued by Canada in 1938. The stamp displays the gatehouse of Upper Fort Garry in Winnipeg, Manitoba. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used. An imperforate pair of this stamp is worth $500 mint.

Fort Garry was built by the Hudson Bay Company as part of it’s network of fur trading posts in the northern and western parts of Canada. The areas were thinly populated and much of the population was first nation Indians. In the mid 19th century Hudson Bay Company was transitioning itself to retail stores and no longer wished to maintain it’s large land holdings. After rejecting a higher offer from the USA, the land was sold to Britain which passed it on to the new Dominion of Canada.

Quebec could sense the Francophones were needed out west if Quebec was to retain any political power in the new nation. They had not yet come upon the near foolproof method of having a Quebecois represent the left party.  Louis Riel presented himself as speaking for his fellow French, Catholic, and First Nation residents of Manitoba and petitioned to form the province of Manitoba. English speakers felt the area was being stolen from them  and their leader was quickly put to death by Riel’s provisional government. The central government of Canada thought Riel had overstepped his authority and tried him in absentia on charges of treason. Riel went into exile in Montana.

10 years later a similar coalition in Saskatchewan sought Riel’s help to present their grievances to the Canadian government. Instead he organized a military rebellion that was quickly put down by the Canadian Army. Riel fell into Canadian hands and the death warrant he faced from his earlier treason conviction was carried out. This aroused much bitterness in Quebec because it meant that the development of the west would be in English and not French hands.

Political fortunes can change over time. By 1970 under a left Quebec Prime Minister, Louis Riel, the man executed for treason against Canada, got honoured with a stamp from them. It will be a long wait before the English speaking political rival he executed is so honoured. I guess bringing a little French Revolution to the wild west sounds romantic to the hippys of 1970.

Some view Riel as a rebel against Canada and a religious fanatic, while others view him as a unique for his time multicultural figure that worked for inclusion. Both views have much basis in fact and the latter is probably more held today. Admittedly not by me. The disdain for the Hudson Bay history of the area is shown by how the gatehouse on the stamp looks today. The encroachment of modern development shows the lack of respect for the past. Another large apartment building was recently very nearly built inside the fort walls.

How it looks now

 

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the traders of the Hudson Bay Company that did so much for Canada taming the wild west. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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India 1967, A Gnat sting slays a Sabre over Bangladesh

Teddy Petter CBE. the man who designed the supersonic missile armed British Lightning fighter thought something simpler still had a place and his last design proved it’s worth in India. 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.

The printing on this stamp is not the best but the subject matter is great. A  plane virtually synonymous with India rises in the sky. This was a bulk postage stamp, so young Indian philatelists and plane fans would have been excited to get a frequent letter decorated with this stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A203, a 20 Paise stamp issued by India in 1967. The stamp features the Folland Gnat aircraft that was manufactured in India. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The mint version is up at $8 so most of this stamp must have been mailed.

The Folland Gnat was conceived as a simple to manufacture and maintain day fighter that would be useful to small countries and it was hoped by Britain in smaller wars. Britain in the 50s still operated large numbers of Vampire and Vemon fighters and there was also a NATO requirement for a light ground attack fighter. The RAF at the time was emphasizing quality over quantity and ended up buying the larger Hawker Hunter fighter. The NATO competition was won by an Italian development of the American F86 Sabre jet called the Fiat G91. The RAF did end up buying a 2 seat unarmed training version of the Gnat which most famously was used it in it’s “Red Arrow” acrobatic display team.

A British Red Arrow Gnat

 

The simple design and ability to manufacture it locally appealed much to India. The Indian air force was dividing it’s purchases between Britain and the Soviet Union but aircraft from both sources required much foreign exchange and expertise. Over time India desired to be more self sufficient and the Gnat was a great way to build expertise.

In the 1965 and the 1971 wars with Pakistan, Indian Gnat fighters faced off against Pakistani F86 Sabres. The F86 had proved a formidable dogfighter over Korea in the 50s with a 10 to 1 kill ratio verses the Russian made Mig 15. The Pakistanis flew a later Canadian improved version of this aircraft. The Gnat however was smaller, more maneuverable, and better flown and achieved a better than 3 to 1 kill ratio against the Sabre, earning the nickname the Sabre slayer.

A Sabre in Canadian markings

 

The program of the Gnat had such momentum after the combat success that a new locally developed version called the Ajeet, (invincible), was built. It was more aimed at ground attack and was less successful as the changes added weight. Without outside assistense, the government owned HAL was not able to give the Ajeet the stability it needed in low altitude combat. By now India was building the twin engine supersonic British Jaguar fighter/bomber and also importing/assembling the similar Soviet MIG 27 so the service life of both the Gnat and Ajeet were at an end. Pakistan had retired the Sabres in favor of French supersonic Mirage III and Chinese copies of the slightly supersonic Russian MIG 19.

The British Folland company was later absorbed by Hawker which made the Hawk trainer and light fighter that is used by both Britain, including the Red Arrow team, and India today. Teddy Petter was not able to help with the later Indian development of his Gnat design. In 1959 he retired from Folland. His wife had come down with Parkinson’s disease and hoping for a cure they moved to a commune in Switzerland run by a defrocked former French clergyman now going by the name Father Forget. Strange but true. His wife was not cured but ended up still outliving her husband who died of ulsers.

Teddy Petter, CBE, designer of the Gnat

India tried to do an indigenous light fighter recently but the program failed due to delays and the constant pull to add complexity.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast Nimal Jit Singh Sekhon who took on 6 Pakistani F86 planes solo in his Gnat. He achieved 3 hits before being shot down. He was awarded the Piram Vir Chakra medal for gallantry posthumously. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.