Month: May 2022

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Mozambique Company 1937, taking credit where none was due

A big, impressive, long bridge allowing a railroad and people to cross the Zambezi river. An impressive accomplishment that could have never happened without outside help. If you are a development company, that hasn’t actually developed anything, why not try to take credit, especially when your contract is almost up for renewal. 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.

Today we cover an early version of a common third world stamp. Where a stamp celebrates a new piece of infrastructure while obscuring and ignoring the generosity through which it happened. Mozambique then or now could have never built such a large, long lasting bridge on it’s own. Neither however could the Mozambique Company, the British owned for profit entity that was incorporated to develop the area. Yet this bridge is all over their stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A52, a 5 Escudo stamp issued by the Mozambique Company on May 16th,1937 for use in their region of the Portuguese Colony of Mozambique. It was part of a 19 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 unused.

Portugal was not a rich country. It did not have resources to invest in all the colonies that had been provided to them by the voyages of Vasco de Gamma. Mozambique on the southern east coast of Southern Africa was such a place. The Mozambique Company was formed in Portugal with mainly British investors to develop the area around the new city of Beira in 1891. The company had the right to tax and was to develop the area and provide services and security to the area. The city was the nearest coastline to the landlocked British colony of Rhodesia and a train line, including this bridge over the Zambezi River was a joint Portuguese and British project with the bridge completing in 1934. It was hoped that the user fees would pay the interest on the loan to build the bridge while also funding a sinking fund to pay off loan principal. The fees were too low to even pay the interest and the loan defaulted. Indeed the whole area suffered from lack of development and the administration contract for the colony was not renewed although the company continued operating certain operations and plantations.

The bridge, now called the Dona Ana Bridge, has gone through many rough periods since. It was heavily damaged during the post independence civil war. In the 1990s it was restored by USA aid but no longer as a railroad bridge but as a foot and light vehicle bridge. It was heavily damaged again in floods in 2000. In 2011 the Mozambique government had plans to reintroduce a railway to the bridge but those plans came to naught and a further renovation in 2017 allowed it to continue as a footbridge.

The Mozambique company still exists, sort of. In the 1950s, the company built an art deco Grande Hotel in Beira. It was again hoped to attract white Rhodesians to drive in for a beach vacation. Again the project never made money and closed in 1965, though the pool was still used and the ballroom available for weddings. After independence, the large concrete shell of the hotel was taken over by thousands of homeless people despite no longer having electricity or water. The communist and later governments never nationalized the property as they then would have had to take responsibility for demolition and relocation of the homeless. The deadlock has now continued for 45 years.

The Grande Hotel in Beira, another failure brought to you by the Mozambique Company

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering if this is one of those places that Vasco de Gamma should have just sailed past. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Straits Settlements 1912, Trying to keep Singapore British, when the people are Chinese, Malay, and Indian

Singapore is today a prosperous, multiracial trading city with very few British. This was true right from the beginning, when it was founded by the British. Showing how important a one percent can be. 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 British colonial stamp with the King, in this case George V, a denomination, and the particular colonies name. These stamps were standard designs printed by De La Rue in Great Britain with a place on the stamp set aside for the colonies name. They almost always had the British Monarch, showing that they were mainly for the use of the British one percent. Now an important reminder of how such a place started.

The stamp today is issue A24, a 5 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements in 1912. It was a 19 stamp issue in various denominations with the high ones mainly to pay taxes and the lower values for postage. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 used.

The settlement at Singapore, that was the crown jewel of the Straits Settlements, was founded by Stanford Raffles in 1819 at the tip of the Malay peninsula. Tribute was paid and protection promised to the local Malayans. He was in the employ of the British East India Company and the area was a division of the then Presidency of Bengal. The area was divided between the British in Malaysia and Northern Borneo and the Dutch to the south. At the time the British East India Company had a monopoly on the China trade and the Singapore trading station was central to that. From the earliest days, Chinese flooded in seeking a better life. They were over 90 percent male, China did not allow females to emigrate legally. The hope was to make it big and go back to China but most ended up staying and heavily involved with Tong Societies for female companionship and other illicit comforts. Indians also flooded in, but many were there as prisoners. It was a fairly volatile mix with only one percent of the colony British.

The colony grew rapidly but was garrisoned mostly by units of the British Indian Army. After an Indian mutiny in 1867 spread to Singapore, the area petitioned to the British parliament to become a formal British colony. The currency was changed from the official Rupee to a dollar tied to the value of the Spanish dollar that was already the currency of commerce. The British kept the ethnicities in separate neighborhoods and tried to ban the Chinese Tongs to get a handle on the worst of the Chinese coolie trade and the rampant sex trafficking. This was less than successful but the city was still growing fast.

It still had the problem of being manly garrisoned by Indians. A local volunteer force was tiny and only one third coming from the majority Chinese population. The Indians mutinied again in 1916 and were put down. When the Japanese invaded Malaya in 1941 the British commanded forces greatly outnumbered the Japanese. Most of the troops were Indians who for the most part did not fight. The same was true of the local volunteer forces. The few British and Australians were relying greatly on their Navy and Air Force but the Japanese Air Force sank several British ships and shot down most of their airplanes. Churchill ordered Singapore defended till the end but while the final perimeter in Singapore was holding there was not enough food and water to feed the vast mostly Chinese population that was present, mostly male but taking no part of the defense. The local British General surrendered citing their welfare and Churchill described the fall as Britain’s greatest military calamity. The horrid treatment of British prisoners meant many still paid with their lives for Singapore after surrender. Asian captives were given the opportunity to serve Japan.

After the war the Straits Settlements Colony was disbanded with Singapore becoming it’s own colony. With little loyalty to Britain or Malaya, self government was allowed. Independence saw the new Malaysia attempt to claim Singapore but it broke away a year later. Many of the structures of the British were retained and the place as never stopped growing. Today the still majority Chinese country has a GNP per capita 40% higher than Great Britain. It is over 6 times that of China, 5 times that of Malaysia, and 30 times that of India. This year is the bicentennial of the founding of Singapore by Stanford Raffles. We will see if his memory receives it’s due.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the one percent of Singapore that made possible the great success of the other 99 percent. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Peru 1936, the latifundistas prevent a shining path to the future

Peru, like so many other Latin American countries still had a feudal style society well into the twentieth century. With the growth of national universities, there came a batch of new leaders, the connected’s children in reality, that sought to speak for the mass of indigenous and overturn the applecart. In Peru, this urge was defeated. 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 top of the feudalist system have things very well. Put in place under colonial times, but then feeling disconnected and even taken advantage of by their distant mother country. The elite elect to break free and go it alone. If you look at the stamps of the Peru of the time all you see is colonial architecture and people serving in puissant armies dressed with more flash than any Nazi. It is no wonder that the new generations chafed in the grandiosity that so lacked achievement.

Todays stamp is issue A 15 Centimos stamp issued by the republic of Peru in 1936. It displays the Avenue of the Republic, a grand boulevard laid out before the republic in colonial era Lima. It was part of an 18 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

What to do with the sons after the first is always an issue in feudal societies. The first son will inherit the estate that cannot be divided and daughters are useful to marry off for gain. The traditional answer was the Church or the army for the superfluous sons. Latin America after independence had chosen to subdivide into many weak nation states. Part of being a nation state was having a new university in the capital. The education combined with a precarious career track is why often the university becomes a hotbed of activism for change from these resentful, superfluous sons.

Peru was incredibly unstable. During 1931, there were 5 Presidents. There were deadly rivalries but all the leaders came from the large landowner class, the latifundistas. Outside looking in were the products of the University of Peru. These people had developed ideas of bringing in socialism that would raise the status of the masses of peasants whose toil supported the current system. This support for the lower classes was mainly theoretical, the movements being controlled by those with much more Spanish blood than found in the mass of peasants.

The left wing movement coming out of the university had two perhaps unlikely leaders. who as with Peruvian tradition were initially allies then later bitter rivals. Victor Haya de la Torre was a homosexual leftist who tried to expand the University to offer more opportunities to peasants  and then used his notoriety to form  a populist political party. Jose Mariategui was more a docturnal communist  that traveled extensively in Italy and Austria making connections to local fellow political travelers. He was more the intellectual and his works tried to show a new “shining path to Peru’s future.” This future was communist, but he insisted not based on European models but based on Peruvian indigenous traditions. That must have been why he spent so much time in Europe. He was not a politician from central casting. He was quite short and handicapped by a amputated leg.

Jose Mariategui

Peru was a republic in theory and as such there were elections from time to time. Usually there was no clear winner, with more room for intrigue. The movements started by the would be politicians above sometimes even won the elections. That does not mean that they were allowed to serve. There was always jail and exile, something both leaders did have experience with. The feudal system was not going to yield without a fight. In 1979, Haya de la Torre was actually allowed to take office as President after 6 decades in politics. By then he was on his deathbed but he had time to sign a new constitution, that did not do much for the economy but at least got the army out of the government.

Victor Haya de la Torre late in life

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the indigenous peasant class in Peru. Perhaps at some point someone will inquire as to their thoughts on how the country is to be governed. Crazy talk, I know. Come again for another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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New Guinea 1932, when Australia needed New Guinea like a city needs water and the fuzzy wuzzy angels could be relied upon

Colonial fever was still hot at the turn of the twentieth century. Sometimes it takes a deadly military campaign to realize some places are better left alone. 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 features a bird of paradise that is native to the tropical island. Still a common vision on todays successor Papua stamps. The bloody price paid by outsiders for the presence on New Guinea means that the draw is no longer as great.

Todays stamp is issue A32, a 3 Penny stamp issued by the territory of New Guinea in 1932 while the area was under a League of Nations mandate to Australia. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations issued over many years. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.

The northeastern part of the island of New Guinea was first colonized by the Germans. This caused some consternation in the then still British colonies on Australia. They were concerned about the sea trade lanes and just the presence of a potentially hostile  power. In fact the colony of Queensland tried to formally annex German New Guinea. This was quickly resinded by the British foreign office who had no interest in the expense of starting a colony and no wish to comfront Germany. Germany formed a private company to exploit  the territory and tried to set up rubber plantations. This did not go well as without slavery it was nearly impossible to get Guineans to work. The Germans tried to demand labor in order to pay taxes that required cash to pay but results were poor and rebellions frequent. Chinese or Indians were not brought in as would have happened in a British colony. At the beginning of World War I, Australian troops landed and got rid of the Germans with hardly a fight.

Post war, the Australians strongly argued for continued presence in New Guinea as an outside Australia line of defense. Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes said that strategically the northern island encompass Australia like fortresses and are as necessary to Australia as is water to a city. The League of Nations awarded the mandate to Australia in 1921. At this point it was administered separately from Papua to the south.

The fortress aspect came true during World War II.  The Japanese landed and were able to establish a foot hold at Rabaul the capital but the Australians were able to hold on to Port Moresby to the south. From Rabaul, Japan was able to bomb Darwin and if they possessed larger bombers more of Australia would have been subject to bombing. What followed was a bloody three year campaign to dislodge the Japanese and caused the death of 7000 Australian soldiers, 7000 Americans and 30,000 Japanese. The Guineans/Papuans themselves played no part in the fighting although Australians made propaganda of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels that assisted Australians and allowed them to imply they had native support. No doubt Imperial Japan would never imply they require the services of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels or Devils for that matter.

A wounded Australian soldier being assisted a New Guinean native, a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel in 1942

After the war came a new UN mandate and new joint administration with Papua. The expense of fortresses on New Guinea was deemed too expensive and Australias forward defense post war would be handled by long range bombers, aircraft carriers and the ANZUS alliance. Papua New Guinea was set on course to independence which was achieved in the 1970s. The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels are no longer considered so angelic as they have soaked up much Australian foreign aid that was mostly squandered.

Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I consider the plight of New Guinea. Another place where the colonizers should have left well enough alone. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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North Borneo Company 1922, A British Chinese Hong company comes to Borneo to persevere and achieve

These empire builders are not looked back on well, but you have to admire their confidence in themselves. 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 was not issued by a country or even a colony, but rather a private company that had acquired a territory to develop or exploit it depending on your point of view. Either way a prime function was to maximize revenue. Postage stamps were a part of that with many more printed for collectors than were needed for postage. The themes were usually topical with views of exotic animals and fauna as the printers imagined them to be in London. Companies like this are long gone but farmed out topicals remain, now printed in China where companies that exist to develop and exploit poor areas of the world are reemerging. History repeats.

Todays stamp is issue A54, a four cent stamp issued by the North Borneo Chartered Company in 1909. It was part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

The area of North Borneo was previously under the control of the Sultan of Brunei. Alfred Dent, an Englishman, was involved in an important family business in the far east that operated as a trading firm called a Hong. It operated in Hong Kong and Shanghai and Mr. Dent was also involved in The Shanghai power company, tea plantations in Ceylon, and the conversion of the Indian Rupee from a silver standard to a gold standard. Sounds like he had a full plate but he desired to do more directly. At the time, the Sultan of Brunei was selling off large pieces of Borneo. Unfortunately he often sold the same piece of land several times over. Dent after several years of negotiations but was able to acquire North Borneo and have a publicly traded, British Royal Charted Company in charge. He bought it in exchange for 15,000 Spanish Gold Dollar coins. The coins were about .2 ounces of gold so worth $250 in todays money, a little less than 4 million dollars. Dent composed the motto for the colony as “I persevere, I achieve.”

Alfred Dent

The shareholder back in England where demanding short term dividends more than long term achievement and therefore Mr. Dent fell short of his goal. There was mining and some agriculture but the area proved expensive to operate. By the 1880s slavery was banned and so the company spent more effort stamping it out among locals that exploiting it for profit. The native tribesman also were difficult to coax to work for western enterprises and the few that did were punished by heavy taxation. The company had to import Sikh policeman from India to police tribal disputes. One Tribal leader named Antanum was on the outs with the company and lead a rebellion. He convinced enough natives of his magical powers and succeeded in overrunning several company outposts. The British Army had to be called in to arrest the tribesmen and Antanum was executed.

The area fell to the Japanese in World War II and the company had no resources to get the operation going again post war. In exchange for a token payment to cover old debts, the area was combined with the island of Labuan and became a British Colony. It passed on to Malaysia in 1963. The need of dividends for investors meant there was never enough reinvestment to persevere and achieve as much as Mr. Dent would have liked. Yet whether you speak of the jungle railroad in Borneo, the electricity in Shanghai, the tea in Sri lanka, or the value of the Rupee in India, a lot of things are around today because of Mr. Dent’s perseverance. It will surprise no one that it is Antanum that has the statue in todays Malaysia.

Antanum statue in Tenom, Malaysia

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Sultan of Brunei. By trading off land he was able to continue until oil was discovered by others and he became one of the richest people in the world. I prefer “I persevere and I achieve” to I hang around and then take advantage, but results do speak loudly. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Tanzania 1991, the sad transition from Ujamaa to Wabenzi

The hope that existed in 1960s era independent Africa was contagious. There was a belief that without colonial oppressors things would get better through a system of brotherhood called Ujamaa. What if the colonial system stays in place, now with a black face and corruption, but lacking the colonials competence. Then you get Wabenzi, a modern oppression named after the Mercedes autos so favored by the corrupt new black elite. 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 is of a type that is sad to me. A cartoonish topical of an elephant. Tanzania was supposed to be a center of Ujamaa. It was a system designed by Africans influenced by Christianity and Socialism where the people bring themselves up by working together. If that had worked even half way, imagine the interesting stamps possible that really teach you about a far off place. Instead desperate revenuing by an almost non existing postal service with farmed out stamps. Other issues that year was a stamp for not Tanzanian Elvis and the paintings of not Tanzanian Vincent Van Gogh.

Todays stamp is issue A123, a 15 Shilling issue of the one party state of Tanzania. It was a 7 stamp issue in various denominations featuring elephants. There was also a much higher denomination souvineer sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents cancelled to order. The sovineer sheet is up at $7.25.

Tanzania formed in 1964 upon the merger of the former British colony of Tanganyika and the Arab offshore island of Zanzibar. The African former slaves of Zanzibar rebelled against their post independence Arab King who was related to the Omani royal family. After the uprising, Arabs were forced into exile. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/ This had also happened in Tanganyika when many whites and Indians were forced to leave, often with only 24 hour notice. Blacks themselves lost the previous ability to seek work in more prosperous South Africa. The first President consolidated power in one political party.

That does not mean everything was down trodden. People got their hopes raised that Africans working together through Ujamaa could get things moving. It was proposed that all laborers contribute one day a week toward community projects. There was nationalization of not just large organizations to bring them into black hands. There indeed was a great increase in literacy especially among women over colonial times.

Many mistakes were made. Collective farms concentrated on export cash crops instead of food. This left the country reliant on food aid. The administration left over from colonial times was now manned by incompetent locals who figured out how to enrich themselves by selling the permits required for everything.

A new elite’s Mercedes SL in Tanzania

 

To his credit, Julius Nyerere the first President, when he saw Ujamaa was not working, retired from government in 1985. At this point he was still somewhat revered for achieving independence and for not being personally corrupt. His ministers continued to govern without him with ever more corruption. Eventually most sources of foreign aid except old friend China cut off Tanzania. Zanzibar requested a vote on continued union with Tanzania in 1990 but was ignored. Aid started again after the first multiparty elections in 1995, but all parties proved corrupt. There is a new Bantu work called Wabenzi that refers to the corrupt new elite in Africa. The new oppressors. There is now some nostalgia for the optimism of Ujamaa. You hear the term popping up in African rap music and it is the fourth principle of the Kwanza holiday. Hope for the future is hard to sustain.

Well my drink is empty and I will smash my glass in frustration with the reality of Wabenzi. Let us hope it proves no more sustainable than Ujamaa. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019

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Australian Antarctic Territory 1984, Home of the Blizzard

Here we have a situation of  going from true adventure with real danger and real knowledge expansion to superficial people and their bucket list. This is not to insult modernity, but perhaps just the way of the world. 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 dramatic scenery nearby Mawson station, the oldest continuously year round manned station in the Australian Antarctic territory. The scenery is a natural for the stamps but does much to attract tourism, which risks the last pristine and mostly unoccupied continent.

Todays stamp is issue A15, a 33 cent stamp issued by the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1984. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. Stamps of the territory are valid for postage both in the territory and in Australia. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents.

The pioneering expeditions to Antarctica occurred early in the twentieth century. An early one happened in 1912-1913 and included a young geologist from the University of Adelaide named Douglas Mawson. Three men attempted to stay two years in the area around modern day Mawson station. Of the three men on the expedition, only one survived. One man fell into a crevasse and died while carrying much of the expeditions supplies. The second man died after being poisoned eating a dog’s liver. Mawson persevered not just to save his own life but to be able to provide the myriad scientific findings. Upon his return, Mawson was knighted and published many scientific papers and a popular book titled “Home of the Blizzard.” Among his findings was that windspeed averaged 50 mph and could go as high as 200 mph. He hypothesized that Antarctica was the windiest place on earth.

After WWI service and other Geology work in Australia, Mawson organized the much larger BANZARE expeditions of 1929-31. The expedition involved sea and air and was funded by three countries, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand with additional private funding. This expedition claimed the territory explored for Great Britain and occupied the rest of Mawson’s life editing 13 volumes of data. When he died in 1958, the work was not done and his eldest daughter Patricia took over the work only completing it in 1975. In 1933, Britain and Australia agreed to divide the territory claimed between themselves. See this American stamp I did a while back that goes into Antarctic treaties that governs various scientific stations now. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/25/celebrate-the-treaty-but-reserve-your-right-to-violate-it/.

Sir Douglas Mawson in 1914

Australia organized a permanent year round station named after Mawson in 1954. The Australian station consists of about 500 during summer and 80 during winter. There are more than 50 permanent buildings. There also now cruise ships that allow tourists to set foot on Antarctica, so far at least staying on shipboard. To show how reckless and unserious even the scientists have become lets recall a recent expedition organized by an Australian university. The university chartered a Russian icebreaker and took not only scientists but spouses and even some tourists who paid there way on. The ship got stuck in the ice and the call went to the Australian armed forces for rescue. These perfumed princes then demanded extra dangerous helicopter flights so they could leave the ship with all their luggage. Remember the wind? I hope none of these losers were knighted on their return, but today who knows. The Russian crew elected to stay with the ship till spring when it could be saved.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sir Douglas Mawson. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting, First published in 2019.

 

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Mongolia 1932, Remembering Sukhe Bator, the axe hero of Mongolia

In a new government with an ever changing cast of characters, it is often useful to pick one who has already fallen as the ideal to strive for. He is no longer competing for power himself, and has no risk of disappointing in the future. 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.

Axe and hero are usually not two words that fit together, outside the world of the firefighter. This is however Mongolia we are talking about. The communist People’s party of Mongolia was put in power by action of the Soviet Red Army. That does not sound particularly independent or patriotic. So the role of one of the Soviets collaborators is emphasized, with just enough truth to be credible. To his credit, he does look the part of a young Asian revolutionary. Wonder if Stalin looked at pictures of dead Mongolian collaborators, and picked the guy who looked the part and whose given name meant axe hero to be elevated. The actual head of Mongolia was a Buhdist Monk, good communists would not want to talk of him. Remember the old communist joke. The future is certain, it is the past that is always changing.

Todays stamp is issue A10 a 40 Mung stamp issued by the Mongolian People’s Republic in 1932. It was a 13 stamp issue in various denominations that showed the sights and people of Mongolia. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $2.00 mint.

Sukhe Bator, then done as one word was born in very poor circumstances in 1893, the son of an itinerant day laborer. Both parents often abandoned the big family seeking work. Bator a street kid, befriended Russian children from the nearby Russian embassy, and learned some Russian. Mongolia of the time was a vassal of Imperial China but in reality had strong  connections to Russia. When the Imperial Chinese government fell in 1912, Mongolia declared independence under a Buddhist Monk named Bogd Khan. His government offered national service to street teens and Bator spent time in Khan’s army and civil service. During this time Bator married a woman of higher station than his own. The benefits of a steady job in a poor country.

The steady job became less steady. Chinese Manchurian warlord Zhang Zoulin, whom some may remember from the other days Manchurian stamp, invaded Mongolia and brought it under his government. Bogd Khan was put on house arrest and his army and civil service dissolved. Many of these people including Bator then joined left leaning organizations that sought help from the Soviet Union to dislodge Zhang and restore Bogd Kahn. Bator succeeded in sneaking a letter from Kahn to the Soviets in the hollowed handle of a horsewhip. The Mongolian group, formalized as a peoples party and received military training. At first the only military action allowed was at Khiagt, where Chinese had crossed the Soviet border. At this time a separate Czarist white Russian force crossed into Mongolia and pushed out the Chinese. This was not acceptable to the Soviet Union and the Red Army invaded and defeated the already running white Russian force. The People’s Party was put in charge with Kahn as a figurehead and Bator put in charge of the armed forces. He was still in his 20s.

There was much jockeying for position and many were executed for coup planning. As head of the armed forces, it was Bator’s job to prevent this. He was not up to this pressure and suffered a mental breakdown in 1923. He died under mysterious circumstances a few days later. Some think he was poisoned and others think pneumonia got him. His memory was raised highly after his death and his statue still stands in the capital Ulan Bator. After Bator’s death, his wife received further training at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow. What Asian wouldn’t want to attend that? Deng Xiaoping and Ho Chi Minh were also there.  She was later a politician in her own right, rising to Chairperson of the Presidium and for a short period acting President of Mongolia.

1930’s class photo of the Communist University of the Toilers of the East University. Go Bears!

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast myself for not making a gay prostitute joke over what Bator’s name sounds like in English. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

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Great Britain 1962. The PM pontificates to the Queen about productivity

Sometimes a stamp issue can be overly optimistic about the future. A little bit of optimism is a good thing, but at some point credibility is lost. 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.

Every week, the British Queen sits down with the Prime Minister and receives a report on the state of things. As with question time in the House of Commons, this potentially is a useful way to hold the PM to account. Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne so long that her first Prime Minister was Winston Churchill all the way through to Theresa May, assuming she is still Prime Minister in a few weeks when this publishes. Update, nope! I have often wondered what these meetings were like. This stamp is how I picture it. The Queen siting there while the PM gives a report that is long on sunshine and perhaps short on reality. Get real Mr. Prime Minister, turn this stamp upside down and tell the real story.

Todays stamp is issue A157, a 2 and  one/half Pence stamp issued by Great Britain on November 14, 1962. It was a three stamp issue celebrating national productivity year. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used. There is a rare version of the 1 Shilling 3P stamp of this issue that mistakenly omits the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. It is worth $16.000.

The reality of British industrial productivity was somewhat less rosy than it appears on this stamp. In 1961, Britain was the ninth most productive nation on earth. By 1978, it had fallen to number 18th. Both Labour and Tory governments of the period had radically increased social services spending. Though the spending was not spent as efficiently as would be hoped, there was a marked increase in the income of the lower class. The spending however created inflation and caused the Pound to be devalued from 2.8 USA dollars to the Pound to 2 for one. This understates the depreciation as the US$ was itself depreciating.

The improvement in the lot of the lower class unexpectedly devalued the value of work  to the next higher working class. This class was heavily unionized and so their devaluation resulted in more radical demands for wage increases. These could not be met and the result was large levels of labor strife, most famously a coal miners strike. Other factors played into this like the stock market decline and the Arab oil embargo.

Britain was ready for a change in 1978 but of course not everyone will approve of any big change. The productivity in 2015(the newest I could find) has Great Britain at number 15. Luxembourg is number 1, the USA number 5. China and India do not figure high on such list as the GNP output per employed person is quite low.

Well my drink is empty and I am always willing to pour another to toast Queen Elizabeth. Imagine the number of hot air sessions she has had to sit politely through over these many years. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Manchu Empire 1935, an old Dynasty is new again in the co-prosperity sphere

Between 1850 and 1950, China was beset with outsiders trying to strip China of it’s national wealth. The last Quing Emperors discredited themselves by not preventing it. The ultimate discreditment occurred when the last Quing Emperor Puyi allowed himself to be named Emperor of the Japanese puppet state in Manchuria. 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.

Back in 1935, this must have been a scary stamp to the Chinese. An area labels itself the Manchu Empire and displays an ancient pagoda. Not so scary sounding and a pretty typical Chinese stamp. However all the Chinese tradition is just a front for Japanese military occupation. It would still have been a real question in 1935 if this was the future of all of China. The last puppet state stamp declared that Japan’s progress was Manchuria’s progress, there were actually two versions of the stamp, one with Chinese characters, one with Japanese characters. By then the mask was off.

Todays stamp is issue A7, a 3 Fen stamp issued by the Manchu empire in 1935. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. There is an earlier version of the stamp issue from 1932 with 5 characters across the top from before Puyi was declared emperor. They have higher values. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 70 cents used.

Manchuria was eyed covetously by both Japan and Russia. Russia desired more warm water ports south of Vladivostok. The Japanese wanted to expand into China from their new bases in Korea. Both used railroads as a way to stake claims and demand rights of their citizens to work them. After the last Emporer Puyi  was forced to abdicate, China entered a period of division being ruled by regional warlords. Manchuria came to be ruled by Zhang Zuolin. His army was unusually strong by Chinese standards as he acquired a stock of French Renault light tanks left over from the French intervention in Vladivostok during the Russian civil war. This allowed Zhang to defeat the Russians and expand his territory to include Beijing. He had close ties to the Japanese and to Puyi the former emperor. Manchuria was then the richest part of China

In the mid twenties he came into conflict with Chiang Kai-shek’s forces and was defeated. The Japanese were upset at his defeat and murdered him as he made his way back to Manchuria by train. They thought they could better control his son Zhang Xueliang. This proved not to be the case as the son resented the murder of his father and had sympathy with Mao’s communist rebellion. He worked with both the Nationalist and Communist forces to oppose the Japanese. However, when Japan invaded Manchuria, he decided to not contest in order to keep his army intact.

Zhang Xueliang is famous for an incident that happened the year after this stamp.  Communist diplomat Chou en Lai met with Chiang Kai-shek to negotiate a temporary truce so efforts could be combined to fight the Japanese. When the negotiations dragged on, Zhang kidnapped Chiang and held him until was willing to agree. For this, he is remembered as a hero in both Chinas.

The Japanese held Manchuria until it was taken by the Soviets at wars end and turned over to Mao’s forces. Puyi was taken by the Soviets and held for a period until being turned over to China. After a period of reeducation. Puyi was allowed to live out his days. Chiang Kai-shek had expressed the desire to have Puyi shot.

The stamp features the White Pagoda in Liaoyang. It was built during the Kin Dynasty in 1189. It is over 200 feet high and built on a large stone foundation. It is called white for the chalky paint that decorates it. The pagoda still stands today.

Well my drink is empty and I will toast the Renault tank. It fought in both world wars and made surprising differences in battles all over the world when tanks were new. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Renault tank in Zhang’s army service