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Macau 1913, the Tanka try to keep the Han out and the Portuguese in their place

Portugal never made the most out of their colonies. Their explorers had very early on encircled the world but their traders left and did not come back. Eventually leaving the Portuguese as threadbare caretakers. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, tape 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 a universal Portuguese colonial issue that displays Ceres, the Roman Gad of agriculture. She shows up on a fair number of Latin country stamps. See the one from Argentina, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/21/argentina-1954-peron-invokes-ceres-to-enobile-the-grain-exchange/  . Macau was a classic trading post colony, so agriculture was not a big part of the place. Food was brought in from China, and so it was their problem and opportunity to feed Macau. An example of the distance between Portugal and her far off subjects.

Todays stamp is issue A16, a 2 Avos stamp issued by the Portuguese overseas province of Macau in 1913. It was a 16 stamp issue with many later overprints to represent changing circumstances. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.75 unused.

The offshore island of Macau was discovered by Portuguese explorer Jorge Alvares in the early 17th century. The native people in the area were mainly the tanku people, a seafaring group of Chinese that often even live on their junk style boats. A seafaring group will be more ethnically diverse and among the Han Chinese they acquired a gypsy like reputation. Though relations with the Ming dynasty was rough, a Portuguese trade representative sent by the King was hung, the Chinese agreed to a permanent  lease on Macau. Over time Macau got larger through land reclamation but the Portuguese were never more than five percent of the population. Even their occupying troops tended to be Sepoys hired from India or even Askaris from Africa. The Portuguese traders were often Jews that usually intermarried with the Tanku and Jesuits were sent to make the area Catholic. The schools brought by the Jesuits were used but they did not have much luck converting Macau to Catholicism. See https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/10/remember-the-divine-duty-of-empire/

A free port was very useful has a place where contract laborers called coolies from China could be sent far and wide. This trade was mostly done by Chinese Tong criminal societies but with the end of the slave trade there was a big market for cheap labor. Macau used its special status to open lucrative casinos but generally was in the shadow of much more successful Hong Kong.

The Portuguese declining position in Macau can be seen in how two riots were handled. In the 19th century, a monthly tax on Chinese junk boats was started. A flotilla of untaxed junks entered the harbor in 1846, landed and clashed with Sepoy police and the Chinese delayed good sales to the Portuguese. They were fired upon, the boats in the harbor were fired on from a harbor fortress and the Governor threatened to burn the Chinese quarter. China sent two Mandarins to apologize for the trouble and Portugal stopped paying the annual rental to China they had paid for many years. In 1967 a communist school for Chinese was allowed  but then progress was slowed after the Chinese refused to pay the customary bribe for building permits. The ensuing  riots saw another delay in supply sales from China and riots tore down Portuguese statues. This time it was the Portuguese turn to grovel and apologize and ban Taiwan KMT presence in Macau. The real issue. Interestingly Portuguese offers to turn over Macau to China were rebuffed. China had not hit yet upon their two systems one China approach of how to bring in these relatively prosperous trading posts into China without destroying their special nature. Portugal willingly ended their administration in 1999, slightly outlasting Hong Kong. The Chinese have agreed to mostly keep out the Han people and open more casinos.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering about Chinese governance. The Portuguese were never big on good government and it can be seen how much better off Hong Kong was compared to Macau. Yet through many systems and despite Macau’s gypsy heritage, Portugal did so much better by Macau than China did with the ports they ran for themselves. It is only this generation where this is changing but with Britain and Portugal gone, there is no alternative. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Australia 1927, the problems of starting a new capital from scratch

It was said by Albert Speer that moving the capital of a country out of the big city is a mistake. He understood that it reduced congestion, but felt that politicians and bureaucrats were just boring people and not being around the artists and achievers  of the big city will leave the area a  wasteland. He was talking in relation to Bonn in Germany but then pointed to Washington, Ottawa, and the subject of todays stamp Canberra, in Australia. Was he right? 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.

Speers argument makes some sense when looking at this stamp. There is a home on the range aspect that is pretty strange on a picture of a then new Parliament Building. The building is done in the stripped neoclassic style that was common in the 1920s. Especially when the architect was American and had come from the Frank Lloyd Wright school of design. The stripping off of ornamentation and the strong sense of the spread out horizontal is right there to see. What is surprising is that in use the building proved quite cramped.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 1 and a half penny stamp issued by the Commonwealth of Australia on May 9th, 1927. It was a single stamp issue that celebrated the completion of what is now the old Parliament building of Australia. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 used. An imperforate between them pair of this stamp is worth $11,000.

After Australia came together in 1901, there was a debate about what should be the capital. Provisionally it was Melbourne but others favored the larger Sydney. Eventually it was agreed to develop a new capital a hundred miles from Sydney, on an area of land ceded from New South Wales. This may sound familiar to the story of the American capital. Indeed the project was lead by Interior Secretary King O’Malley, who was an American expatriate who claimed Canadian birth to ease his entry into Australian politics.  The design he picked to build was from  another American Walter Burley Griffon. In another American frontier touch, he declared the capital area a dry, (no liquor) region. That sends shivers though this philatelist.

The city plan was not followed through on quickly due to the wars and lack of funds. In the 1950s they tried to redouble the efforts but by then Griffin had moved on to later work in India and the city resembled a strung out series of suburbs. Eventually a national Library, a University, and a few museums were strung together. A man made lake and a redwood forest that were part of the original plan are in place. The city has about 400,000 residents.

Sheep in the field near Parliament House. Not part of Griffin’s plan

In 1988, a new Parliament house opened to coincide with further self rule. The House on the stamp still stands though over the years it was haphazardly added on to, losing the gardens. It currently houses the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Well my drink is empty and I am glad I am not stuck in a dry county. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Pakistan, atoms for peace poliferates until Buddha smiles

How could an American PR stunt lead to two undeveloped countries obtaining nuclear weapons. It took a smiling Buddha nuclear test in India in 1974 to see the calamity of atoms for peace. 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.

Pakistan was a new country in 1948. As such there are a lot of the countries first stamps. Among these issues for Pakistan is a new paper mill in 1955, a new agricultural university in 1968, and a new steel mill in 1969. Though serving the nation, many of the above were built with outside help. Nevertheless, interesting issues to me. One than stands out though is todays 1965 issue showing Pakistan’s first nuclear reactor, given to it by the USA as part of the atoms for peace program. India received a reactor themselves about the same time again with help from the USA and Canada. Normally I am annoyed when a gift is given and who gave it to them is not acknowledged on the stamp. Here however, where it just shows stupidity, so there should be as little acknowledgement as possible.

Todays stamp is issue A71, a 15 Piasa stamp issued by Pakistan on April 30th, 1966. It was a single stamp issue showing off Pakistan’s first atomic reactor, the PARR-1, in Islamabad. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Both India’s and Pakistan’s nuclear programs relied on native born scientists given free advanced educations at Cambridge University in Britain during the last days of British India. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/03/18/india-1984-rakesh-sharma-becomes-a-cosmonaut-and-goes-to-space/.   The theoretical knowledge of how things work does not mean there was any capability. Abdus Salam was still a science advisor to the Pakistani President Ayub Kahn and set up a Pakistani Atomic Commission back in 1956.

Dr Abdus Salam even got a stamp. Yea nuclear proliferator!

The American atoms for peace program began as a speech given by American President Eisenhower in 1953. The idea was that access to nuclear secrets would be provided with view to nuclear power generation in exchange for the countries agreement to not produce nuclear weapons and that nuclear facilities meet international standards. Early recipients of nuclear reactors under the program were Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and India. Only Iran is not yet a nuclear power, probably due to not being part of British India early and getting one of those scholarships to Cambridge. What a calamity.

The calamity of the program came to a head when India exploded a crude nuclear bomb in 1974. They called the operation Smiling Buddha and obfuscated about what the test meant. America and Canada withdrew support for both Indian and Pakistani reactors but by then the programs were far along with expertise built up and new reactors in the pipeline. Pakistan was not able to conduct its first nuclear test until 1998, after China had stepped in to assist Pakistan’s nuclear program. It was quite a test though with 5 bombs detonated. This made clear that Pakistan’s deterrent was in place. The initial bombs were to be tossed sideways from fighters, American supplied F16s.This may or may not have worked. Remember the original atom bombs were dropped from bomb bays of big bombers from high altitude with parachutes to give the plane time to get away. They have since developed medium range nuclear capable missiles. Abdus Salam having received a Nobel Prize, no not for peace, died in 1996 before the test. Therefore perhaps too much credit/blame is given to A. Q. Kahn. Interesting he had left Pakistan in protest to Pakistan declaring his religious sect non Muslim. Too bad they didn’t do that earlier before the damage was done.

Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I contemplate the idiocy of atoms for peace. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Viet Cong 1964, Better blow up the Canberra bombers that the USA wasn’t supposed to send

Here we have a fake stamp covering a real attack on bombers that were not supposed to be there. I will try to get to the bottom of the creation of this unique stamp. 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 rather hard to identify. It looks North Vietnamese and indeed is printed there. Notice the rough state of the perforations. Instead though it is an issue of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, the Viet Cong. The stamp is also a little confusing because the plane blowing up on the stamp is the well known British Canberra bomber. The USA used them as well, repackaged as the B-57 and used them extensively in Vietnam, including before they were supposed to.

The Scott catalog does not recognize the issues of the Viet Cong. For a stamp to be considered real there has to be a postal system. If the Viet Cong had one, they never convinced the stamp collecting world of it.

In 1964, the USA was doing much to help prop up the government of South Vietnam. The mostly communist National Liberation Front was receiving support from North Vietnam and trying to overthrow the South government, which was left by the French when they left in 1954. Under the terms of the Geneva Protocol, outsiders were not allowed to deploy jets to Vietnam. Thus the early bombers sent were old B26 piston engine bombers. In early 1964, a B26 crashed in the USA and the fleet was grounded. It was decided to then get around the ban by deploying B57 Canberra jet bombers, but claim they were out of the Philippines. The idea was to operate them with South Vietnamese markings and joint crews. This just did not work out. In late 1964 48 B57s arrived at Bien Hoa airbase. Four of the aircraft crashed on arrival. The airfield was also not secure from Viet Cong attack. On Halloween night 1964 the base came under a 30 minute long mortar barrage. The base was crowded and many of the bombers were parked in the open air. Five B57s were destroyed that night and 13 more were damaged. This is the attack depicted on the stamp. The idea of joint manning with the South Vietnamese did not work out as the South Vietnamese crews thought the plane was beyond their capabilities. There was another disaster involving the B-57 in early 1965 when a fully loaded bomber exploded while waiting in line to take off that set up chain reaction explosions on over a dozen additional bombers.

The B57 Canberra eventually proved useful in Vietnam with it’s long range and war load allowing it to fly up and down the Ho Chi Minh  trail for hours at a time hunting supply trucks. The B57 was one of the last American plane units to leave Vietnam in 1972. The Bien Hoa airbase  was directly attacked during the Tet offensive and nearly fell with many planes damaged. However the South Vietnamese managed to hold on to it until the surrender in 1975. The air base is still operational and Vietnam operate SU 30 fighter bombers from there.

North Vietnamese Army capturing Bien Hoa Airbase in 1975. The B57s were gone by then but it looks like they got some F5s

One interesting issue that arose as South Vietnam fell was who runs it post war. Viet Cong officials tried to set themselves up in the government offices in Saigon after the fall. This did not last and quickly South Vietnam was being run directly from Hanoi. It is now the official position of Vietnam that Viet Cong units were part of the North Vietnamese Army.

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

 

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Ghana 1973, Somehow the Gold Coast can’t feed itself

When the Gold Coast became independent Ghana, still with lots of gold, hopes were high. President Kwame Nkrumah had style, copied directly by President Obama, and big plans. When neither him nor his rivals could deliver, it was time for the army to try to get back to basics. What is more basic than a feed yourself campaign? 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.

I laughed when I examined this stamp. Is Ghana suggesting feeding yourself by way of wet nurses. Did the junta want to celebrate the glorious anniversary of their majestic coup by deploying wet nurses to hungry areas. On closer look she is proposing to feed you by selling you a banana. All in all pretty pathetic for the freaking Gold Coast.

Todays stamp is issue A113, a five penny stamp issued by independent Ghana in April 1973. It was an 8 stamp issue that was also available as a souvenir sheet that promoted the new feed yourself campaign. According to the Scott catalog , the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

In 1972 Ashanti Catholic Ghana Army Coronel Ignatius Kutu Acheanpong was dissatisfied by the economic progress of the elected government. In the over a decade since independence, the country under both the left and the right wing governments had performed poorly and still relied on foreign charity for food. The Coronel believed that by promoting agriculture the country would no long feel the humiliation of constantly begging from people you hate. The USA provided the lions share of the worlds food aid at the time. Ghana still had gold, the mine had opened in 1897, but maintaining output under government control was difficult and the crude methods ecologically destructive. Coronal Acheanpong was not able to get the results he wanted. Ghana is still today a large recipient of food aid, theirs now comes from Japan. In 1978 it was time for a General, Fred Akuffo to try his hand. and there was another coup. In 1979, Ghana took a different tact. A Flight Lieutenant from the Air force, Jerry Rawlings, had a third coup and blamed the problems on higher ups in the military and tribal system. He was an outsider to that as he was the illegitimate son of an Englishman with a wife at home and a local female. He had never been trained abroad and had no important tribal connections. To clear the decks, he had both Coronel Acheanpong and General Akuffo shot. The earlier failed politicians had sensibly gone into exile after their failures.

This actually went a little better with Rawlings transitioning to an elected President. The gold mining situation improved with the government selling off a share in the gold mine Ashanti Goldfields. The outside investment allowed for modernized mining methods and proving additional reserves. It also lead into falling back into foreign control of the wealth. Ashanti Goldfields was merged into Anglo-American Gold, of South Africa. You can probably guess that something that calls itself Anglo-American is neither Anglo nor American and you would be correct. It was an old South African front outfit for the German Jews that took over Cecil Rhodes’ mineral empire when he died without heirs. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/   . Ghana still generates over $6 billion a year in gold but still had to rely on food aid. The food aid is mainly wheat, so perhaps the bananas and wet nurses are still local.

Well my dink is empty and I am left wondering how Ghana recruits it’s army officers. Seems like not a good place to rise to the top. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Nigeria 1965, independence is hard, to coup or not coup, that is the question

Independence was supposed to be a panacea. A new country is free of it’s old restraints and can now rise upwards. That was the hope and peoples hopes had been raised. When things then don’t turn out so well people adjacent to power will think they can do better. To coup or not to coup? 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 a well drawn picture of a parrot. Whats not to like. Well Nigeria was going into it’s phase of coups and even a civil war. Early independent Nigeria had kept the colonial tradition of showing things actually happening there and people for whom it would be interesting to learn more about. Instead here we have a topical stamp with animals that was only of interest to worldwide topical stamp collectors. In other words, selling out.

Todays stamp is issue A49, a nine penny stamp issued by the Republic of Nigeria in 1965. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations that showed animals of Nigeria. There are overprints of this issue with FGN during the civil war that were not issued by the government but sold to collectors. Since not issued they are considered fake but some worked when sent through the mail. The stamps were also reprinted by a later government around 1970. So this stamp, being apolitical and available had some staying power in a rough time. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used. The 1970 version loses 10 cents of that.

Nigeria was ruled as a federation with some autonomy to its regions during British colonial times. When independence came in 1960, it was one country that even grew some by adding Muslim regions of Cameroon. Nigeria had a large population and oil resources that had been discovered by the British but nor fully developed since Britain had a deal with Persia to supply it’s oil needs on generous terms. Thus there was a lot of optimism for national success. There was also a sense of Pan Africaism where the former colonies of the European powers would gradually come together and develop into a hopefully peaceful, prosperous world power.

The instrument of independence was handed to Jaja Wachuku, an Irish trained Christian Chief of the Ngwa clan of the Igbo tribe. He didn’t seek power himself but performed various jobs for the early independent governments. Political parties were on tribal grounds but early on the more conservative and liberal parties were able to work together. Wachuka was able by lobbying Britain and the USA to use their influence to save Nelson Mandela from a death sentence regarding armed uprising in South Africa. He also helped get Liberia into the UN and Togo excluded from the Organization of African Unity because it was the first African country to suffer a military coup. Later as aviation minister, Wachuku resigned when he was unable to remove an important party figure who was stealing from Nigerian Airways. Hope begins to crack.

“Real” Nigerian tribal Prince Jaja Wachuku in post independence Speaker of Parliament garb.

Within the armed forces of many African nations there were those whose hope began to wane. The early leaders of independence were often crooked, not achieving African union, and still with their hand out to the old colonials. It was hoped that a series of military coups a Free Africa Movement could get things back on track by using military discipline to purge the corrupt and then Africa could come together. In Nigeria, young Muslim officers from Northern Nigeria lead a coup, but instead of a coming together, the Christian Biafrans rebelled and civil war ensued.

The massive oil wealth of Nigeria has mainly been squandered. Wachuka himself was jailed by Biafra for criticizing their use of child soldiers. He was later freed and took up a Senate seat where now he was only representing his tribe. Pan Africanism is over. Today one of the military rulers from Nigeria’s many coups has just been elected to a second term on an anti-corruption platform. As in many other African countries, ex military leaders are elected as people remember fondly their earlier attempts to get things back on track in earlier times. Perhaps the best from a field of bad choices.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast former Nigerian colonial Governor Fredrick Lugard. We have talked about his work in British East Africa here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/07/imperial-british-east-africa-company-1890-another-company-fails-to-administer-a-colony/ and his work in Hong Kong here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/26/hong-kong1891-the-british-build-the-premier-university-in-asia-for-the-chinese-but-climb-the-hill-to-avoid-their-filth/  . He believed it was better to let the British fade into the background and let the tribes handle themselves administrative matters. It seemed to work best of what has been tried there. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Tasmania 1899, Choosing a Royal Society over bushrangers and convicts

The American west of the 19th century was known for outlaws, adventurers, and troubles with Indians. The Tasmania colony had that too, with the added complication that many settlers were ex convicts. Like the American west, Tasmania eventually formalized as part of the British Empire and then further into Australia. 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 issue of stamps displays the natural wonders of Tasmania, in this case Mt. Wellington. When you think of the timing of the stamps still in the 19th century, the depictions are quite good and well printed. Considering how rough some of Tasmania’s early issues are, and that they were not just printed in London as with so many colonies, the progress of society in demonstrated. It also equates to the art of the American west, where the natural beauty was captured by artists and then used to attract settlement.

Todays stamp is issue A11, a one penny stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Tasmania in 1899. It was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3.00 used.

It is believed that the island of Tasmania broke of from the mainland of Australia thousands of years ago. The first inhabitants were Aborigines. The island was first spotted by Dutch Explorer Abel Tasmin in 1642. He named it for his sponsor the Dutch Governor of the East Indies. When the British came around the beginning of the 19th century, they Anglicized his mouthful of a name to van Diemen Land before switching to Tasmania in the 1840s. At the time of the first British settlement, there were about 3000 Aborigines on the island.

The first settlements were really convict settlements with convicts coming from the British Isles and especially Ireland. The convicts usually served short sentences and then given land to farm. Between gangs of escaped convicts, the hardscrabble nature of any new settlement and gangs of angry and hungry Aborigines, one can imagine Tasmania as a difficult place to live. Yet among all the trouble there is civilization. The first church, the first library, the first post office, and even the First Royal Society outside of Britain. It promoted the study of science and nature, and maintained the areas first botanical gardens and listed Queen Victoria as one of it’s patrons. There was also the discovery of gold to stir excitement.

The new settlements faced challenges. The area was hardly crowded by people but the Aborigine were annoyed by the intrusion and began raiding settlements and isolated farms. Their rocks, spears, and anger were of course more annoying than truly dangerous, and most were killed out of hand. It was decided to round up the last few hundred and send them to a small island called Flinders Island. They were expected to raise sheep but did not fare well and mainly lived off charity. In !847, the last few dozen made an appeal to Queen Victoria and were allowed to move back to Tasmania. The last pure blood Aborigine in Tasmania died in the early 20th century.

The bigger problem were the escaped convicts that divided into two groups, The squatocracy and the Bushrangers. Some escaped convicts started sheep farming on not their land and were called the squatocracy. This was annoying but possession being nine tenths of the law they eventually blended in. The others were gangs of outlaw thieves called bushrangers. The law eventually got to most of them especially later with the better communication between settlements thanks to the telegraph. These groups were more of Irish than British heritage and their different ways lead in some ways to the development of an Australian character as distinct from the British.

British settled colonies always had much self rule and over time it was decided to consolidate the Oceania colonies as a more independent Dominion as was done in Canada and less successfully attempted in South Africa. This came to pass and Australia came into being in 1901.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the convict. The ones that served their sentence and than took up the challenge of starting a new life. At the height of the arrival of convicts, Tasmania was taking in 10 percent of it’s population a year as fresh arrivals. Combined with restless natives, the whole enterprise could have ended very badly. It didn’t. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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New Caledonia 1948, we would like to get rid of you, but we need your money.

These strange little islands. The natives can’t quite work out how to be independent, if it means the end of the subsidy. 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 stamp printers did a good job with this one. From the style, I would have guesses that the stamp was 20 years newer than it was. It shows the Kagu bird, an almost flightless bird that is the symbol of New Caledonia and only exists in the wild there.

Todays stamp is issue A23 a 40 Centimes stamp of New Caledonia issued in 1948. It was part of a 19 stamp issue that were the first stamps issued after New Caledonia ceased being a colony and became an overseas department of France. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used.

The first inhabitants of New Caledonia were the Lapita people who went extinct around 500 AD. Next came the Kanack, a Micronesian people. The first European to spot the island group was Captain Cook, who thought it resembled Scotland and named it New Caledonia after the Roman name of the Scottish territory beyond their frontier. Contact with Europeans was scattered and often unfriendly. An American whaling ship that landed in 1849 saw their crew captured and eaten. The French gradually took a bigger influence banning slavery and cannibalism, and sent many missionaries. The Kagu bird was a sensation with the French and many were taken for zoos and efforts taken to stop the natives from eating the nearly flightless bird.

The fist economic activity was the sandalwood trade with China but the supply on the island was quickly worked through. In 1864 nickel was discovered and mining started in 1875 and local smelting in 1879. On one hand, the Kanack people claim they were often tricked into contract labor on other islands in a process called blackbirding. On the other hand, they also complain about being excluded from working in the mines or smelters. Of course both could be true at least anecdotally and it must have been annoying to see such lucrative activity going on and the funds from it staying with the French and their colonial authorities that only benefited them in terms of education, healthcare, and the dole.

The Kanacks repeatedly rebelled and their warriors then killed leaving great numbers of orphans for the colonial authorities to look after. One activity they were allowed to be part of was guarding the great number of prisoners that France sent to penal colonies on the island. Unlike Australia, few of the French prisoners stayed in New Caledonia after their prison time ended.

After the war, France granted New Caledonia the status of an overseas department and bestowed French citizenship on all residents of the islands, no mater their ethnicity. Nickel is still 95 percent of the exports of the island but it still relies on over a billion Euros a year in direct subsidies from France. The remaining Kanacks continue to lead an independence movement but they are now less than 40 percent of the population. In 2018, there was a vote on independence and 56% voted to stay French. France has acted happy about that, just as they acted sad after losing a similar vote in the former colony of Djibouti in 1979. The Kagu bird is down to fewer than 1000 in the wild but has been granted endangered status and there is an active breeding program at the local zoo.

Well my drink is empty and so I will flip a nickel to see if I should have another…. I lost, I wonder if whatever small amount of nickel is still in the coin came from New Caledonia. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Azerbaijan 1919, there is oil, and Turks, and fake stamps in them there hills

Once a flag rises it can never fall was a slogan of Azerbaijan during it’s one year of independence in 1919. Perhaps it should have been never be sure you won’t see this flag again. In the mean time, lets print some fake stamps. 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.

Yes todays stamp is fake. The few real stamps from the early Azerbaijan were imperforate stamps printed on an unusual yellow paper. This stamp mimics those in how the country name is presented and currency but is later. The modern real Azerbaijan stamps don’t say republique and have a different currency. Fake stamps still plaque the country but there is something fake about the real stamps. If you see the Muslim country stamp featuring John Lennon, that is real. A stamp with the Spice Girls, that is fake. Makes you wonder if the whole country is fake.

This is a fake stamp so it is not in the catalog. So therefore the stamp is priceless.

The city of Baku was taken from Persia in the early 19th century. Oil was discovered and the town became a boomtown of Czarist Russia. The area contained Muslim Turks, Persians and Christian Armenians and Russians. With the chaos that overcame Russia in 1917 the Caucus area quickly attempted to break away. The local unit of the Czarist army became the army of the area but there was much infighting between Muslims and Armenians. The Muslims had an Ottoman Turk Army in support and the Armenians allied with the Soviets. Baku fell to the Ottomans and there was an ethnic cleansing. In theory Azerbaijan became an independent Republic under local Azer writer and journalist Mammad Ammin Rasulzadeh, who I will call MAR from here on out. MAR had been an early communist but had also trafficked in Muslim separatism. A rebel with many causes. The Czar had sent him to exile in Persia where he was part of the new Iran movement against the Shah. The Shah then sent him on to Turkey where he agitated against the Ottomans. A 1913 Czar amnesty let MAR return to Baku where he was supported by Zeynalabdin Tagiyez. ZT was a contactor that stuck oil and sold out becoming one of the richest men in Russia. An independent Azerbaijan relied on an occupation Ottoman army that was withdrawn at the end of 1918 as the Ottomans were on the losing side of World War One. After a respectable period, The Red Army marched in and made Azerbaijan a Soviet Republic.

MAR as President of Azerbaijan

The Soviets showed some grace to the Azers after the reconquest. MAR had known a young Joseph Stalin when both were anti Czarist agitators and gave him a job in public relations in first Moscow and then Leningrad. MAR escaped to Finland and then Poland where he married. Another war sent him on to Romania then Turkey from where he often spoke to Azerbaijan over Voice of America. He died in 1955. ZT in view of his previous philanthropy was allowed to live out his days in his summer cottage as his other properties were seized. ZT’s second wife Sona was not so lucky. Despite being of noble birth and upbringing, in 1924 upon ZT’s death, Sona was evicted from the summer cottage and spent her remaining days  a street person in Baku. Sona died in 1938.

ZT with grandchildren a year before his death

Azerbaijan again got independence in 1992. Oil is not has plentiful as it once was probably explaining why the area no longer receives the attention of the Russian, Turkish, or Iranian army. Baku is a big city today but the Armenians and Jews that used to be a big part of life there are gone and even Russians are down below 5 percent of the population.

Well my drink is empty and my stamp fake so come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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China 1961, Remembering Sun Yat-sen for trying to bring peace, order, and good government over from Hong Kong

The Communist and for that matter the Taiwan governments of China look to the memory of Sun Yat-sen  as the father of the revolution that ended the Qing Monarchy. For that he will be remembered but it is reasonable to wonder if his successors lived up to Sun’s hopes and where his hopes came from. 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.

Remembering a dead leader is a safe thing to do since he is no longer a threat. The People’s Republic has done a great job in picturing Sun Yat-sen as one of them. Indeed just looking at the stamp, I thought it was Chou En-lai. Sun was often photographed with a moustache but understandably not by the People’s Republic.

Todays stamp is issue A156, a 10 Fen stamp issued by the People’s Republic of China on October 10th, 1961. It was a two stamp issue marking the 50th anniversary of the 1911 Chinese Revolution that overthrew the Monarchy. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth $5 used. It would be worth $75 unused. Taiwan had a stamp honoring the same revolution anniversary showing the KMT flag over both Chinas. It is worth much less.

Sun Yat-sen  was born in southern China in 1866. Interestingly there is American paperwork that he was really born in Hawaii. Sun claims that this was faked in order to get him in the USA during a period when the USA was restricting immigration. In any case, he was educated in Anglican schools in Hawaii and Hong Kong due to the generosity of his well off older brother in Hawaii. He became a Doctor of Medicine at what became the British founded University of Hong Kong, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/26/hong-kong1891-the-british-build-the-premier-university-in-asia-for-the-chinese-but-climb-the-hill-to-avoid-their-filth/  . He also was Baptized a Christian. The relative peace and prosperity of Hong Kong turned him against the old ways of China’s then Monarchy. He formed a Tong in Hong Kong to work against the Monarchy after a list of suggestions was rejected by the Chinese Ambassador in Hong Kong. He traveled around extensively among expatriate Chinese communities in South East Asia, Europe, and the USA seeking support and taking note of the success of such communities relative to the situation in China. This was also noted on racial terms as the success of the Han people, and he regarded the Qing Dynasty as of Mongolian heritage.

In America, Sun founded the Revive China Society. In China his organization was called the KMT, though Sun spent little time in China. There were multiple uprisings that failed but in 1911 success was achieved. This was accomplished by working with Yuan Shikai who commanded the North China Army. This seemed a good fit as Sun’s support was mainly in the South. The Republic did not fare well. Sun yielded the Presidency to Yuan who then splintered the government by declaring himself the new Emperor. Sun was back to exile and China entered it’s warlord period.

Sun then did what got him on this stamp. He had the KMT sign treaties with the Chinese Communist Party and an aid agreement with the Soviet Union. The treaty was signed with Adolph Joffe, a Crimean Jew and Trotskyite. That complicated things when the Soviets went Stalinist but by then that would be Sun’s successors problem. In 1924, in one of his last big speeches, Sun stated that the British traditions of peace, order, and good government that Sun had witnessed in Hong Kong had inspired him to be a revolutionary. Being a revolutionary is fun with all the travel and excitement but Sun’s brief period in power showed actually bringing Hong Kong’s success to China was not going to be quick or easy. Sun died of liver cancer in 1925.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the former British Administration of Hong Kong for showing the Chinese people how things could be. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.