Month: October 2022

Categories
Uncategorized

Antigua 1970, Remembering 2 Princes service as midshipmen on their mother’s ships around the Empire

Under Queen Victoria, The British Empire was at it’s zenith, (unless you would like to argue that Britain’s new Prime Minister means the Empire just conquered the home country.) To police the empire and the sea routes, the Royal Navy built iron and copper clad light cruisers/corvettes that had steam engines and sails to cope with long periods at sea. What a great opportunity for two young Princes to learn about the Empire as midshipmen. 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 is a nice looking stamp, if you forgive the condition issues of my copy. As with so many commonwealth issues there is just too many of them. This issue had 17 issues of people and their boats including caribe Indians and their war canoes, to the local then current tugboat. Seems a little disrespectful to put such riffraff beside King George V.

Todays stamp is issue A51, a 35 cent stamp issued by Antiqua on August 19th, 1970. In addition to the 17 issues, there are also reissues to account for a currency devaluation and then overprints for you guessed it another currency devaluation. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 80 cents used.

When future King George V was born, he was not expected to be ever King, since he had an older brother named Albert. Since the two boys were only 17 months apart they were still educated together. As part of that education, at age 14, the two young princes set out as midshipmem on the ironclad Cruiser HMS Bacchante that took them around the world. Accompanying them was a tudor that had them fill out a daily diary.  The crew had been chosen specitically to be good inflences on the boys but in reality the crew was told to keep their distance fron the princes. Surprisingly after the three year cruise, the tutor released the young royal dairies in book form for sale. He had already annoyed Queen Victoria by the young princes having not learned any foriegn languages. Perhaps not that surprisingly, young Prince George did come back with a blue and red tattoo of a dragon on his arm, done by a local tattoo artist in Japan.

John Neale Dalton, clergyman and tutor to the young princes. Seen here later in life as Canon of Windsor

Albert, then on track to be the future King left the Navy. Not so for Prince George, he was assigned to the West Indian naval station in Bermuda and served with increasing responsibility on HMS Thrush, on HMS Canada, as seen on this stamp, and finally as Captain of the ironclad cruiser HMS Melampus.

The death of his older brother Albert in 1892 saw the end of George’s naval career and his life took a big turn to prepare him for what was a long reign. Part of that turn was marrying Princess Mary of Teck. She had been previously engaged to Prince Albert.

The kind of long haul ships that George served on fell out of favor in the 1890s as there was a naval building binge of bigger, more heavily armed and armoured ships by all the want to rule the sea powers. HMS Canada for example was scrapped in 1897 despite being less than 20 years old. There was still an empire to police, and I think an air of the old light cruisers can be seen in even post war designs like the Leander class ships from the 1960s and the Amazon class from the 1970s. Ships not designed for the battle of Jutland, but rather to show the flag far away on a good day and aim the cannon and land some marines on a bad day.

The surviving, in a British Columbia museum, bow badge of HMS Canada

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. Also Happy Halloween for everyone and Happy Reformation Day for fellow Lutherans.

Categories
Uncategorized

Cook Islands 1968. remembering Captain Cook’s search for Terra Australis

The Cook Islands remember Captain Cook. Well I should hope so. 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.

Cook Islands are administered by New Zealand and the majority of people whose heritage is traced to Cook now live in New Zealand. These people are Maori. That does not mean the stamp issues are not full bore British Commonwealth. Collectors are taught to scoff at stamps made specially for collectors but check out the artwork and use of gold trim on todays stamp. The collector then got his penny worth and the collector today is still getting a visual treat for his 25 cents. Cook Islands have this decade experimented with stamp issues from Rarotonga, the biggest island. These are to have a more Maori flair, perfect for all the Maori stamp collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A39 a one penny stamp issued by the Cook Islands then an independent state in free association with New Zealand. The UN frowned on colonies and New Zealand could point to lots of costs that make the association far from free, but this is the words arraigned to please. The stamp was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations that recognized the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook’s first voyage of discovery on HMS Endeavor. This stamp shows a painting of Cook’s ship off Huahine Island in Tahiti by the painter John Clevely. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.

As can be gathered from the stamp, Captain Cook set out on HMS Endeavor in 1768. The ship had been bought second hand to serve as a scientific vessel having been designed as a collier, a coal transport ship. Cook’s mission was to find the then hypothetical continent of terra Australis, Latin for south land. The area had been hypothesized as far back as Aristotle. The theory was that if the planet Earth was in balance with all the land mass near the North Pole, there must be a similar land mass near the South Pole. They were not talking about what is now known as Australia, it was known and referred to as New Holland. The idea to rename New Holland Australia came later from British Explorer Matthew Flinders proposed the renaming of New Holland as Australia. In doing so he was proposing giving up on the mythic 6th continent. Antarctica, the real terra Australis was spotted a few years later.

The voyage was the first to map the east coast of Australia and discovered New Zealand. HMS Endeavor had first restocked in Tahiti and took on Tupaia, a priest and star mapper from the Society Islands. He  brought native knowledge of distances between islands, spoke Maori and knew names of native chiefs. Interestingly the discoveries were not at first claimed for Great Britain. This was revised mid journey when Captain Cook learned that French explorer Louis de Bougainville was also exploring the Pacific at the same time and making claims for France. Cooks first journey of discovery was cut short when much of his crew, including Tupaia, died in Batavia of malaria. Batavia is modern day Jakarta, Indonesia. The journey did not make it far enough south to spot Terra Australis/Antartica.

In their lifetimes, Captain Cook had a much worse fate then French Captain de Bougainville. After both had distinguished service on opposite sides during the American Revolutionary war, de Bougainville had a long retirement in France where Napoleon made him a Count.  Cook had worse luck. He failed to find a northwest passage around North America he was looking for and then while passing through Hawaii again on the way back, he was murdered, disemboweled, baked to remove skin, and some say, partialy eaten. One too many bites at the apple of discovery?

The HMS Endeavor also came to a sad end. After again being on Captain Cook’s second journey, the ship changed hands and was employed as a cargo ship based out of the Falkland Islands. It was later lost when supporting a British naval blockade during the American Revolutionary War off Rhode Island. In 2018, undersea explorers  claim to have found the wreck.

Well my drink is empty and so I will wait patiently till tomorrow when I will discover and present another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

Brazil 1960, Remembering the snakes that smoked

South America was not exactly a hotbed theater of World War II. On the other hand, what if the USA offered to build you a steel industry and buy whatever you make. That might be worth a meaningless war declaration. After all, as was said in Brazil at the time, snakes will start smoking before the Brazilian army will fight the Germans. Spoiler alert, the snakes smoked. So fill your own pipe and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The poor printing and cheap paper let this stamp a little. They were however printing the stamp themselves. Also doing for themselves, Brazil was repatriating their dead from Italy and re-interring them at home with a proper memorial. That should count for something, quite a bit in my book.

Todays stamp is airmail C104, a 3.30 Cruzeiro stamp issued by Brazil on December 22nd, 1960. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

There was a lot of pressure on Brazil to join the war against the axis. One thing against was the sentiment of the elites. They worried a fascist defeat would have the winning force coming for them postwar. USA then dangled the offer of a steel mill and to pay in full for the training and equipping of an expanded Brazil military. First the USA was allowed to station at Brazilian bases. Germany responded by allowing their U boat submarines to target Brazilian shipping. 36 Brazilian flagged merchant ships were sunk with a loss of life of 1691 Brazilian sailors. War was declared. The USA then supplied 3 destroyers and eight frigates to help Brazil combat the U boats. With much American training 6 U boats were sunk near Brazilian waters.

The Brazilian government then set a goal of recruiting, training and equipping 100,000 soldiers to fight in Europe. This became sort of a joke in Brazil. Similar to the American expression “when pigs fly” the expression “when snakes smoke” became common on the idea that Brazil could field a competent force overseas.

The Brazilian soldier turned the snake joke around and declared themselves Snakes that Smoke

The jokes failed to grasp the money and pressure behind the Brazil Expeditionary Force. Two years later, when the outcome of the war was no longer in doubt, 25,000 untrained and unequipped soldiers began landing in already Allied occupied Naples, Italy. At first they had to camp on the docks as no barracks were provided. Further months were required for training but eventually there were Brazilians present in some of the final Italian theater battles. There great success was in accepting German surrenders, over 90,000 including two complete divisions. Regular readers might remember the Trieste stamp from last week of the problems the Germans had surrendering in Italy. I can find no record of a similar double cross by Brazilians to what New Zealand did at Trieste.

The Expeditionary force in action in Italy in 1945.

There was a huge cost in lives in sending the expeditionary force to Italy. 948 deaths. So did the Allies come for the Brazilian leaders post war as was feared. Well no but ultimately yes. Unelected President Vargas had a 15 year run as dictator from 1930-1945. Elections were then forced on Brazil by the USA. In 1952, Vargas ran on his record of industrialization and being the self proclaimed father of the poor. He won office legitimately in 1952, but as in modern times, the advocates of democracy have a certain outcome in mind, and that wasn’t President Vargas. The USA paid for Brazilian Army forced President Vargas to resign. He signed the paper put before him but later in the day shot himself. Perhaps Brazil should not have accepted the candy and got in the white van with the tear stained mattress..

President Vargas

Well my pipe burned out. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Italy/Trieste 1952, Keeping an Italian city from Marshal Tito

Arraigning a German surrender at the end of World War II is a messy business. In the city of Trieste, it involved a dachsund dog in Switzerland, Allied Generals play acting as Irish businessmen, 40 days of terror, and an eight year post war military occupation to get the city back to Italy. 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 is sort of a dual issue of Italy and the then Free Territory of Trieste. It was issued in concert with a stamp show in Trieste to ruffle fewer feathers. The flag shows where things would be headed two years later.

Todays stamp is issue A337, a 25 Lira stamp issued by Italy, and sometimes overprinted for use in Trieste on June 28th, 1952. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.20. If this stamp had the Free Territory of Trieste overprint, the value goes to $4.00.

Trieste had been a gateway to the Adriatic for Austria Hungary. The city though contained even then many Italians. After the First World War it was given to Italy. After Mussolini fell from power, the area came under German occupation. As German fortunes declined, an attempt was made to lessen casualties and negotiate a separate surrender of German forces. Two allied generals, one British and one American traveled to Switzerland in the guise  of Irish businessmen. The purpose of the “Irish” trip was for one to acquire a dachshund dog named Fritzel. The actual purpose of Operation Fritzel was a four way meeting between the two Allied Generals, the American Secretary of State and Karl Wolf the Supreme SS and police commander in northern Italy to negotiate a separate surrender in the theater.

The problem was the Germans were very particular about who they surrendered to as they were dealing with many communist and Yugoslav partisans that didn’t take surrenders. This was the problem in Trieste.

On April 30th 1945 there was an uprising by the partisans in Trieste. The German occupiers withdrew to an old castle and announced they would only surrender to a nearby New Zealand force advancing toward Trieste. The New Zealand commander was summoned to the castle and accepted the German surrender, but then double crossed and turned the prisoners over to the Yugoslavs. The prisoners were never heard from again, and forty days of terror began in Trieste directed at mainly the Italian residents. The British Field Marshal Alexander was so shocked at what went on, how could our side’s occupation be worse than the Nazis, that he forced Tito’s forces to withdraw from at least the city of Trieste. A military occupation began of Trieste under the name of the Free Territory of Trieste. The military governor was British general Terrence Airey. He was the fellow that had pretended to be the Irish businessman in the market for dachshunds.

SENIOR BRITISH ARMY OFFICERS (MH 6823) Major General Sir Terence Sydney Airey KCMG CB CBE. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205065406

Trieste was allowed to return to Italy in 1954. It still remained somewhat isolated until the fall of communism allowed the the resumtions of trade ties to the usefully located port. Over 90 percent of the modern city are Italian speakers.

Crowds celebrate Trieste’s return to Italy in 1954.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Fritzel the dachshund. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

India 1957, is this girl really reading?

In the 20th century the population of India was rising fast. With it was the demand for education and the need to extend that opportunity to the half that were female. This stamp shows an Indian girl happily reading but it is easier to print a stamp than it is to educate a country. 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 stamp from a country in it’s first decade of independence shows a lot of optimism. There is really a belief that without the shackles of colonialism, problems can be quickly dealt with. What is not realized was that the former colonial masters were dealing with the same problems and if they had not solved it with their ample resources, it was going to be a big challenge for the country on it’s own. 60 years after this stamp and 70 years after independence, Indian female literacy is still less than two thirds of the population.

Todays stamp is issue A121, a 15 Naye Paise (no more Annas for India) stamp issued on November 14th 1957. It was a 3 stamp issue in various denominations celebrating children’s day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

Traditional precolonial education in India was carried out by a community funded gurukul system. One imagines much of what was taught was spiritual but the system was ineffective at achieving literacy. in 1872 the literacy rate was barely 3 percent. In the last 75 years of British rule over 100,000 English language schools were opened and over 10 million students were enrolled. Literacy was up to 16 percent though the numbers were much lower than that for girls and those outside the big cities.

In 1944, the British proposed an educational reform based on a commission of British experts, the Sargent Report. It proposed mandatory English education for children of both sexes from age 6-11. After that there would be a division of the students between academic and vocational training. The stated goal was for India to achieve full literacy by 1984. The plan was labled a scheme and scoffed at by India’s independence movement as taking far too long to achieve full literacy. After independence however the plan was modified to include mandatory education out to age fourteen, but otherwise implemented.

100 percent literacy is an elusive goal. At the time of this stamp in 1957, female literacy was less than 15 percent. This seemingly slow progress does not mean the government wasn’t trying. Population was rising fast and that means a young population that puts a big burden on the educational system. The colonial authority was adept at putting out grand future plans. There often however was not the resources allocated. Indian literacy is far higher than in Pakistan another part of former British India, but far lower than China, a country that faced similar issues.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the participants of the 1944 Sargent Commission. For both providing a roadmap and showing to lazy critics that it is easier to take easy swipes than it is to do things better. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

USA 1965, Getting inspired to have a strong mind in a sound body by a flocking of Slavic falcons performing gymnastics

This is a strange stamp. Wanting to do a stamp celebrating and perhaps suggesting more interest in physical fitness, the USA ties it to a 100 year old organization called Sokol (falcon). Sokol directly tied the self improvement to rising Czech nationalism and Slavic brotherhood. 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.

There is further weirdness in the visuals of this stamp. The Sokols route to fitness was group gymnastics, yet here we have a single discus thrower. Looking at the images of groups of Sokol gymnasts, see below. There is the pretty obvious problem of a row of men/boys with their face aligned to the neighboring rear end.

Todays stamp is issue A694, A five cent stamp issued by the USA on Febuary 15, 1965. It was the 100th anniversery of  the first group of Czech immigrants to the USA setting up a local Sokol chapter. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents mint or used.

Sokol was founded in Prague in 1862, during the time of Hapsburg rule from Austria. Sokol means falcon in the Czech language and the goal was for Slavs to use gymnastic excersize as a route to a strong mind in a sound body. The chapters were open to males of all ages. Every six years there would be a slet gymnastic festival with all the chapters invited. Slet means a flocking of birds in Czech, in this case falcons. The largest Slet ever was held in 1912. The Pan Slavic aspect of the organization bumped against some churches as it was open to Slavs whether Catholic, Orthodox, or Muslim. “A Slavic brother is dear regardless of his Faith” so says Sokol. The Slovene Catholic church went so far as advise against joining Sokol.

There were other issues. The socialists set up a rival workers gymnastics club, with affiliation to Eagles instead of Falcons. The more progressive Sokols flew away leaving the remaining organization more right wing and militaristic.

The interwar period which saw the long sought by Sokols Czech nation arrive. The support from the new state saw slets becoming official events. The last Slet was in 1938 before German occupation. The Nazis banned the Sokol organization and even jailed the leaders.

There was an attempt to bring the Sokol organization back post war but the lefties remember preferred the Eagle gymnasts and the Sokols were again banned by the communist Czech government. The Sokols were legalized in 1990 with the change of government but the Sokols left were many now older folks, who do not make the best gymnasts.

In the USA, the Sokul organization peaked in 1937 with 19,000 members. The American organization still exists and was even a slet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 2017. It is now open to and mainly girls.

A modern American Sokol gymnast.

Well my drink is empty. If I have any hope of a strong mind in a sound body, I should probably put the bottle down. Come again soon foe another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Bohemia and Moravia 1939, Showing off Bata’s skyscraper in Zlin’s urban utopia

Interwar modern architecture showed up in some strange places. Capitalist mass production had lead to the imagining of a new town in Austria-Hungary, I mean Czechoslovakia, I mean Bohemia and Moravia, I mean Czechoslovakia, I mean the Czech Republic, I mean Czechia. The building on the stamp is now the local tax authority, so it is important that you closely follow to whom it is you owe. 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.

One thinks of modern architecture as arising from thinking from the political left as to how to organize the movement toward the  cities as part of industrialization. Great mind though travel similar lanes and Zlin’s modernity resulted from capitalism only to be embraced by socialist, communists, and during this period even national socialists. For fans of architecture, it means the building still stands after the enabling shoe factory is long gone. One modern feature of Bata’s skyscraper that was not much copied is that the bosses’ office functioned as an elevator containing a phone, a sink, and air conditioning.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 3 Koruna stamp issued by the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939. It was part of a 22 stamp issue in various denominations showing items of architectural interest in the newly occupied territory. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Thomas Bata founded a shoe company in the small town of Zlin in modern day Czechia. Over time the shoes became ever more mass market. Canvas replaced leather and machines for mechanical sewing were used. This expanded the market and lead to the factory and surrounding area expansion. Czech architects influenced by trends in Germany and France, were contracted to design a modern industrial city in Zlin. For example, even residential housing used bricks and stressed concrete matching the factory. The factory benefited from World War I orders but then felt deeply the recession that followed. One aspect of the recession was that the new Czech currency was devalued. Bata sensed the opportunity and cut in half the price of his shoes. The workers took a pay cut in exchange for stock ownership in the company. The ploy was a big success and the skyscraper on this stamp was a result of the new prosperity. New Bata factories, also with matching surrounding urban utopias, sprang up as far away as India, the USA, and Canada.

With the German conquest of Czechoslovakia, the Bata family posted it’s Jewish workers overseas and left for the USA. Factory production continued at Zlin and benefited again for war time orders but some workers were then sourced from the Auschwitz concentration camp. When the USA entered the war against Germany, the Bata family further emigrated to Brazil to be seen as noncombatants.

The post war communist government of Czechoslovakia seized the Zlin assets using the excuse that the Bata family had not done enough to resist the Nazis. That was just an excuse, the Batas had supported the old Czech government in exile and tried to make places for Czech expatriates in the worldwide operations still owned. Thomas Bata was sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia for collaboration. The remaining worldwide operations were now run from Canada.

The velvet revolution of 1989 gave the Bata family a chance to bid on the old factory complex in Zlin. The family chose not to as shoe production was leaving developed countries for the third world. The shoe factory in Zlin struggled on until the year 2000 and then closed. At it’s height, it had employed 14,560 people. Bata shoe factories have also closed in the USA, Canada, and the England but still continue in India. The organization is now based in Switzerland. Interesting, given that people still wear shoes, that the quest to maximize profit was eventually worse for this shoe business than either the communists or the Nazis. Well at least the Bata’s are still rich, I guess that is all that matters.

The city of Zlin bought Bata’s skyscraper from the bankruptcy and refurbished the building for local administration and the tax authority. I bet those two employ more people than the 30s equivalents, while still managing not to make anything. Wonder whose office rides the elevator?

Bata’s skyscraper in Zlin today

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Thomas Bata’s attempt to create an urban utopia around his factories. Who doesn’t love an urban utopia? Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

France 1982, Remembering when France got in on the space race

President Charles de Gaulle longed for a time when France itself was a major center of power. Thus when the USA and the USSR were busy going to space, it was a natural that France became the third country to start a space program. 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 celebrated the twentieth anniversary of CNES, the French space agency. The single issue crams a lot of space activity onto the stamp. However the reality was that de Gaulle’s vision of a proprietary space program was no longer operative. The facilities had been integrated into the wider European program and even the active French astronauts transferred.

Todays stamp is issue A938, a 2.60 Franc stamp issued by France on May 15th, 1982, a little late for the 20th anniversary being celebrated. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

Things went fast for the French space program under de Gaulle. The CNES was to manage the program and train astronauts. By 1963, a small payload unmanned rocket named Berenice was launched from a launch site in Algeria. As that site would not be available much longer, new space centers were built in Toulouse and in French Giana.

Berenice rocket on the launch pad.

They eventually built 12 Berenice rockets but they were small and could only get satellites into a low, 600 mile up orbit. It was a start though, and since France has been the spearhead behind the European Space Agency’s long line of ever bigger but unmanned Ariane rockets. French astronauts have been to space, but only as guests on American and Soviet/Russian space missions.

That is not to say there is nothing going on these days at the French CNES space agency, which has a near 3 billion Euro a year budget. In 2020 an unmanned solar orbiter was launched by a private company in the USA for a seven year mission to study the heliosphere of the sun. There is also a seven year program in collaboration with Germany to develop a reusable, cheaper, and more environmentally sensitive replacement for the Ariane one use rockets. They hope to have the new rocket flying by 2026. A program that takes over 10 years is not very likely to have any cost advantage short of some wild accounting.

An artist conception of the modern French solar orbiter

President de Gaulle was older by the 1960s so could not be around to keep the early momentum of the French space program going. I wonder if he realized what a do nothing Eurocrat boondoggle it would degenerate into, he would have skipped the whole thing?

Well my drink is empty. I notice on the quite fancy website of the CNES, there is a place for PhDs to apply for grants. I have a PhD, how about a grant for a stamp gasbagger? I bet you have funded stupider. Just kidding. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.