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Ghana 1957, Independence with a new name meaning warrior king on camelback, but what to do with the manganese mine?

It would have been difficult to retain the name Gold Coast after independence in 1957. You would expect a place named that to be prosperous. If it wasn’t, you might wonder where the money/gold/ in this case manganese went. Shipped out by camel? 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 like this stamp with the later independence overprint, even though the stamp’s value drops 20 cents. What I like is including the name change to Ghana without the crossing out that usually happened in say Yugoslavia on old stamps when the rulers changed. The inclusion of the date was enough to announce the change in a forward looking, optimistic way.

Todays stamp was the old 1952 A14 Gold Coast 3 penny issue. The Ghana post independence overprint was still valid for postage in independent Ghana. There were independence overprints on nine of the original 12 stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

The name Gold Coast made sense for the colony. Coastal colony administered cities grew up around trading posta where Africans traded gold and slaves to the European outposts. The biggest trading was in gold that Africans panned for.

With a new name needed for independence. Ghana was chosen as it was the title given the warrior kings of the old Wagadou Empire that existed from 300-1100 AD. The story put forward was that Wagadou became very rich when camels were introduced into the area and then used on trade routes trading salt and gold with Morocco. There are of course two problems with this in relation to a country  with the Gold Coast borders. Wagadou lied inland in modern Mali and Mauritania with no overlap with Ghana/Gold Coast. Also the main beneficiaries of old camel trade would have been Arabs and Sephardic Jews, not black Africans. The Wagadou Empire was eventually made a vassal state of the neighboring Mali Empire. Wonder what the African term is for camel mounted warrior vassals?

Wagadou Empire ruled by warrior kings called Ghana. Go south for the Gold Coast

Manganese was discovered near Nsuta in 1914. Manganese is mainly used in a cheaper grade of stainless steel where manganese substitutes  for nickel in higher grades of stainless steel. The mine during the colonial period got a road, trainline to dedicated port facilities in Takoradi, the old Dutch trade station Fort Witsen. With the mine being online so long, it is still believed that only three percent of reserves have been mined.

The mine went though changes post independence, though not as quickly as might be expected. 16 years after independence, Ghana nationalized the mine. In 1995, the mine was partially privatized as the Ghana Manganese Company GMC. To make it more attractive to investors, in 2001 GMC was granted an exclusive 30 year lease on all manganese mining within 100 miles of the Nsulta mine. In 2007-2008 Consolidated Minerals, a Jersey based holding company, bought 90 percent of GMC with the government of Ghana still holding 10 percent. In 2017 Consolidated Minerals, having unfortunately modernized their name to Consmin was acquired by a Chinese company Tian Yuan Meng Ye. They still operate out of tax haven Jersey and use the Consmin name to actively raise money in British markets. Perhaps the governments of Ghana and Great Britain should join forces to renationalize it as Gold Coast mining and get back to square one?

Gosh, our new masters are Chinese. Who voted for that?

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be a new story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

 

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Philippines 1947, Getting back to the business of independence

Manila had been devastated by the fighting there near the end of the war. Yet a year later, the Philippines was finally independent and back to business. How about a stamp issue to get you in the mood for the mid century modern 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.

This is part of the first stamp issue of the independent Philippines. The other stamps in the issue show old monuments or pleasant landscapes. In this stamp, the country shows it’s hoped for modern future. How quickly it was put right after the war must have given hope.

Todays stamp is issue A80, a 12 Centavos stamp issued by The Philippines on June 19th, 1947. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. 12 Philippine Centavos would today be worth .25 of an American penny.

In 1901, American President Theodore Roosevelt stated regarding The Philippines, “We hope to do for them what has never been done for any peoples of the tropics-To make them fit for self government in the manner of the really free nations of the world.” Fifteen years later not much progress on self government had been realized. Then Democrat Congressman William Atkinson Jones authored the Jones Law that set up an elected bicameral Philippine legislature with much actual authority and further made it the law of the USA that independence was the goal. This made Representative Jones very popular in the islands and his name is still on this bridge and a medium sized town.

Congressman William Atkinson Jones

In 1914 at a site a few blocks away from the current bridge, a historic Bridge of Spain collapsed in a rain storm. Manila had a new urban plan  drawn up by the famous Daniel Burnham and a new bridge over the Pasic River was part of it. His plan was to emphasize the rivers in Manila in the style of Paris or Venice. Funding for the urban plan came mainly from the USA but the new Philippine legislature saw that Philippinos got most of the work. The Jones Bridge opened in 1921 under the direction of local architect Juan M Arellano. the design was quite beaux arts and featured 4 female virtue statues representing the Philippine Motherland.

City planner Daniel Burnham
Architect Juan Arellano

In 1945 as Japanese forces evacuated Manila, see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/02/america-cellebrates-an-old-spanish-fort-a-decade-before-the-japanese-war-crime-there/   , they destroyed the original Jones Bridge. Again with American help the bridge was quickly rebuilt. In doing so the bridges structure stayed similar but it lost it’s elaborate decoration. The 3 surviving motherland statues were moved to other locations. In 1998 there was a refurbishment at the direction of then First Lady Ming Ramos. She added stone balustrades and Chinese style lamps. She also had the steel girders painted gold and backlit. She was trying to make the design less traditional and more in keeping with Asia. The design was not popular. In 2019 another refurbishment was started to return the bridge to the original 1921 appearance.

1945 Temporary bridge over the fallen span

Stamp collectors will want me to point out the impressive riverfront building in the background of this stamp. It was and is Manila’s central post office. The design was also part of Daniel Burnham’s Manila plan and also built under the direction of Juan Arrellano. The building has managed to keep it’s original style throughout it’s life.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Czech Republic 1996, Losing the hyphen war

Czechoslovakia were two peoples with two languages held together by an authoritarian government post World War II. When the communist regime ended, those that replaced them were an informal group of Czech intelectuals that had put fourth an anti government manifesto. Notice the lack of Slovak involvement, the Slovaks sure did. 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 remaining Czechia apparently could not achieve European integration fast enough. Here we have a stamp issue of various styles of doors. The styles are generic  and not an actual door located in the country. Isn’t that strange for a new country that might be expected to want to show the world what they had. The European Union often shows generic styles like that. It is away to avoid people keeping count of whose things are represented.

Todays stamp is issue A1093, a 4 Koruna stamp issued by Czechia on June 12th, 1996. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations displaying styles of portals, this one classic. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Czechoslovakia got more repressive after the Soviet invasion of 1968. In 1976 they arrested members of the local rock band “Plastic People of the Universe”. The crimes were long hair, rude lyrics and involvement with the underground. What rock band wouldn’t be guilty of that? In any case a group of higher art folks from Prague attended their trial and then put out a manifesto called Charter 77. It made the point that hassling the rock band violated human rights treaties that Czechoslovakia had signed. It was only the type thing that fancy people would read but fancy people from all over read it. One of the writers of it was playwright Vaclav Havel.

When the communist regime was falling apart it was the Charter 77 people appointed to replace them. A Czech group. As artists they made some freshmen mistakes playing politicians. A prison amnesty meant to release political prisoners instead released almost everyone in prison. The crime rate tripled and with that took away much of the new government’s popularity. The new government also tried to get away with just removing the Socialist from the countries title.

The Slovaks wanted more. In 1919 the country had been founded as the Czech and Slovak Republic. By the late 1930s the dominant Czechs had contracted that with a lower case S. In the divisions that came with German pressure, Slovakia asserted its independance. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/21/slovakia-1942-right-wing-priests-try-to-achieve-a-seperate-slovak-state/  . After the war it was back to 1937 and now without Germans. Slovak deputies in 1991 asked for a hyphen and a capitalized S in the new name for the country. This was summarily refused but the Czechs offered to allow a dash instead of a hyphen that kept the S lower case, and only when writing the countries’ name in Slovak. They also offered to add federative to the republic title indicating the federation of states. They also took great offense at the whole discussion, reminding of the Munich Conference of 1938 with all of those inferences including by extension Slovak disloyalty.

Vaclav Havel was a lot more popular around  the world as a urbane communist resister than in Slovakia where he was the Czech guy who let all the crooks out of jail. So when Slovak demands moved past names and toward independence, Havel threatened to resign. He was not going to be the guy presiding over the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. . This threat only offended has what had he done for Slovakia and notice he still wasn’t spelling the country as if he was representing both Czechs and Slovaks. Havel resigned, the two countries separated and Havel then put himself forward again to be elected as a less powerful Czech President.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for the Plastic People of the Universe. Assuming suspended sentences, what rock band wouldn’t want the credibility of the “Man” being after them? They sung in English, weren’t political, and their name and style were rip offs, excuse me, homages, to Frank Zappa, but he never got his country to come after him. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019

 

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Australia 1990, not remembering correctly the ANZAC spirit

This stamp seems badly put together. It combines women filling in for men in a factory while showing British made Spitfire fighters in British RAF markings. No wonder the Queen looks so confused in the corner. 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.

Australia along with New Zealand again sent out a large contingent of forces in World War II. This spirit and service is worth remembering and I strongly recommend viewing the ANZAC memorial in Sydney that remembers Australia’s overseas deployments from World War I till the present day. There are often veterans on hand that add much color and poignance to what you are viewing.

Todays stamp is issue A417 a 41 cent stamp issued by Australia on April 12th, 1990. It was a five stamp issue that tries to show how the ANZAC spirit carried on into World War II. One of the stamps does even worse that this one by showing a not time appropriate helicopter. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

World War II started in Europe two years before Japan’s aggressive moves in the Pacific Islands. As such many Australians volunteered for service in Europe. Among them were air force personnel that manned three squadrons of Spitfire fighter planes in Britain starting in mid 1941, after the Battle of Britain. When The Japanese began their attacks, Australia was almost completely devoid of fighter planes and pilots. By January 1942, Japanese bombers began bombing the northern Australian city of Darwin. Australia made an urgent demand that their pilots be returned to Australia. After some equivocation, Churchill agreed and also sent Spitfire fighters  with them to join the fight and show Britain was with them.

The Spitfire was slow to arrive in Australia. It had to be shipped by sea in an unassembled state and then repainted to local appropriate camouflage. The pilots returning had remember been late for the Battle of Britain and did not have much experience in combat. They did get to Darwin in early 1943 and did their best. America had responded much more quickly and the vast bulk of the Royal Australian Air Force RAAF fighter force were American made P40s.

RAAF Spitfire with sharksteeth decoration, personnel and Boomer the dog. Hope Boomer got a ride

The Spitfire did not prove as useful in the Pacific War as it had over Europe. The plane had a short range which was a big hamper in the island hopping campaigns. The supercharged Merlin engines seemed to have a lot more trouble related to the hot moist climate. It took a long time to get enough airplanes to form a proper Spitfire training unit. The plane was also ill adept at dropping bombs which became ever more important as the war went along with fewer Japanese in the air to fight. The Australian armed forces were also not being assigned to many of the later retakings of islands such as the invasion of The Philippines in 1944.

In all Britain shipped 258 British made Spitfires to Australia. In October 1945, one month after the end of the war, all RAAF Spitfire flight operations ended. The plane must have made some impression in Australia. In the 2000s, an Australian kit plane maker fashioning itself as Supermarine, the company that designed the real Spitfire, built 100 flying kits the resembled Spitfires on a 75% scale.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour perhaps several more to toast the ANZAC spirit. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Sarawak, When the Last white Rajah won’t write the check, Britain bails out again

Profit seeking companies have a pretty poor track record running colonies. See here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/07/imperial-british-east-africa-company-1890-another-company-fails-to-administer-a-colony/   or here https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/28/mozambique-company-1937-taking-credit-where-none-was-due/    . This one is a little different as the descendants of a white adventurer were ruling Malayans after being given the land by the Sultan of Brunei. Until it was time to write a big check and the White Rajah instead puts in a call to the colonial office. 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 from after the bailout but before the area passed to independent Malaysia. These type stamps often show the local industry and this issue does show local basket weavers. No oil industry stamp though, instead exotic animals and plants. Britain had been accused of colonizing Sarawak post war to get their hands on the oil resources. So no stamp of the industry to make the locals point.

Todays stamp is issue A23, a two cent stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Sarawak in 1955. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents.

Charles Viner Brooke was the last in the line of 3 Brookes that had been  white rulers of Sarawak. During their time the area was not a British colony. The people of Sarawak were Malayan. Brooke had taken over in 1917. Over time the area became more prosperous as oil was discovered. Brooke had followed the common British practice in colonial areas in turning over much of the interactions with locals to a council of tribesman. Brooke agreed to their request of banning Christian missionaries and in turn the tribesman had banned the local practice of cannibalism. In 1941, a new constitution was passed for Sarawak that would gradually shift more power to locals while leaving the Brookes in ceremonially as the Rajah. In return for signing off on this, the Sarawak treasury paid Brooke $200,000 that funded his exile in Sydney. The Japanese then invaded and the new constitution was not implemented. The Japanese held on to Sarawak till the end of the war and left most of the oil fields in wreckage.

Brooke returned to Sarawak in 1945 and was received in a friendly manner. He then informed the locals that he did not have the money needed to get the oil fields back into production and he contacted the British regarding a loan to Sarawak. The only way a British loan was possible was if Britain was named the colonial administrator. As part of the deal, Brooke would personally receive 1 million pounds, over 30 million dollars today. Many local tribesmen viewed this as a sellout as it would mean again that their constitution would not be implemented. They pointed out that Britain had done nothing to defend Sarawak from the Japanese. Neither or course had the tribesmen and how else could Britain guarantee repayment of the loan. It is worth pointing out that it was the British that had discovered the oil in Sarawak and neighboring Brunei and done the work of bringing it to market. It would not be them however to get rich from it. Britain readily passed Sarawak and it’s oil on to independent Malaysia.

The Brooke family was also not happy with the decision to turn the area over to the British ending the white Rajah. Anthony Brooke, the nephew and heir, actively opposed the turnover and was banned by the British from the now colony. Even Charles’s wife Sylvia opposed the turnover. She had ambitions that her daughter Lenora would be able to put Islamic law and rules of succession aside and become the next white Rajah. After Charles died, Sylvia wrote a book about her time as Queen Consort title “Sylvia of Sarawak, Queen of the Headhunters”.

Sylvia Brooke, last Queen consort of Sarawak, and self proclaimed queen of the head-hunters

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sylvia. She looks to be an expensive woman to keep happy, it is no wonder Charles felt the need to sell out Sarawak. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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French Occidental Africa 1906, General Faidherbe can’t give Maurel & Prom what they want

If a coastal trading post is successful as was Saint Louis in modern day Senegal, there will be a push from the trading houses to push inland. This potentially cuts out the middleman. General Faidherbe imagined a French African Empire stretching from the west coast of Africa to the Red Sea in the east. Therefore he did his best for the French trading house Maurel & Prom. 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 from one of the periods where wildly spread out colonies were jointly administered. Hence a French General whose activities were in Senegal on a stamp meant for the Ivory Coast. Around the time of independence there was a pan African hope that many of the nations could come together in large groupings as the French had done. It had not worked for France and the Africans themselves could not pull it off.

Todays stamp is issue A2, a 2 Centimes stamp issued for the French colony of Ivory Coast when it was part of French Occidental Africa in 1906. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2 whether used or unused. There are versions of this stamp issue where the Cote de Ivorie printing is doubled or omitted due to printing mistakes. This pushes the value up to $400.

The Saint Louis trading post in Senegal was quite successful. We covered a Senegal stamp telling the story of the bridge to Saint Louis herehttps://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/20/senegal-1935-a-bridge-connecting-a-trading-post-becomes-a-symbol-of-a-city/  . By this period, the slave trade was over but there was still lucrative trading in cattle and peanuts raised by Africans and then sold in Saint Louis to the trading house Maurel & Prom. The trading was going on with both the Serer people of the African Empire of Sine and with nomadic Arabs from further north.

The trading house had the idea to push French inland. General Fadeherbe lead the expedition of about 300 French. He had taken a 15 year old native girl named Sidibe who bore him a son and taught General Fadeherbe the local dialects. Moving inland brought conflict with the Empire of Sine. The Sine Army was defeated at the Battle of Logandeme in a few minutes. General Fadeherbe burned nearby villages as a warning and took over major areas. The King of Sine pleaded and threatened in an attempt to not lose the contested area. To loose the area would cut off access to British arms markets in Gambia, their only source of weapons. The King threatened to kill all white people in Senegal and all cattle headed to market in Saint Louis. The French kept the land.

The Sine Empire did manage to make the French pay a heavy price. No they did not kill all the white people but they destroyed many of the peanut fields, killed much cattle, and harassed French outposts. This of course ate enough of the profits that the expedition failed in it’s profit motive. France eventually began paying tribute to the Sine King in order to be left alone. This arrangement was in affect till 1969 when independent Senegal pulled recognition of the title.

The French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war saw many French Generals killed, captured or dismissed. A call went out for colonial officers to return to France. He took with him his son but left behind Sidibe. Once home the 40 year old General was promoted and married his 18 year old niece by his deceased older brother. She helped raise his son and bore him 4 more children. The General did not have as much luck with Prussia as with Sine and his army was destroyed at the Battle of St. Quentin. He retired from the Army and became a politician and author. Maurel & Prom still exist but now mainly do oil exploration.

Well my drink is empty and I have nobody to toast, the trading house was greedy, the General’s expedition foolhardy, and the Sine wanted to kill all the white people, of which I am one. Perhaps just this once I will toast myself for finishing another article. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Finland 1963, It might be time for a new airmail stamp, the DC-6 modern airliner is now old fashioned

Stamps sure can last along time. When this stamp was new in 1950, the DC6 was the new, fast, almost intercontinental airliner. By this version of the stamp in 1963, the DC-6 was out of date and just serving low cost charter Finnish airlines. 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.

Some might argue that an attractive image of an airplane over a winter wonderland is timeless. That the aircraft was old and not in domestic service only matters to plane nerds. To which I would point out that the stamp required two redrawings over the years to account for currency changes. Finland did not make this mistake on their next airmail issue. Instead the mistake was never making another airmail stamp.

Todays stamp is issue AP5, a 3 Markka stamp issued by Finland on October 10th, 1963. There are two versions of the this last version of this stamp with either 13 or 16 tiny lines through the zero number. My eyesight, even with magnification cannot tell which mine is. Thus there is mystery as to whether according to the Scott catalog my stamp is worth 30 or 40 cents used.

The DC-6 was launched in 1946 as the next development of the smaller DC-4. The plane could fly 300 mph, carried about 60 passengers, and introduced pressurization to enhance passenger comfort. It was almost intercontinental. It could fly nonstop from the east coast of the United States to Europe. From Europe to the USA facing head on the Atlantic’s westerly winds, required a fuel stop.

An early option was a sleeper version, where the daytime seats fold and a bed comes out where the overhead compartments would be. This version can be picked out by a few small circular windows at a higher level. The plane does not have that and may be of the longer freighter version. Some of those had passenger windows like the plane on the stamp, some did not. By 1960, most of the 704 DC-6s built were operating as cargo planes in the third world or in the USA as a firefighting water bombers.

You might notice that the DC-6 on the stamp has no livery. The model was not in service with the Finnish Air Force or Finnair, then known as Aero O/Y. It is not unusual for mail bags to go on foreign airlines, but not something you want to brag about on your stamps. This lack of DC-6s in Finland was rectified in 1961 when two now defunct vacation charter airlines, Karair and Finlantic took used passenger examples. Finland is still not done with the DC-6. A nose section of a plane formally in Canadian service has been restored in Finland and put on static display. Colorado has Finland beat, it was after all an American plane. One is used there statically as a kindergarden classroom.

Well my drink is empty. Come back soon when there is another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Philippines 1970, Trying to be self sufficient in steel, and failing

Smaller countries have to import a lot of things that are expensive and it becomes a force keeping you down. Soon after independence, the Philippines’ government built a large steel mill on Mindanao to replace imports of steel. The story shows how hard that is to pull off. 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 while back I did a similar stamp from India, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/11/21/india-1958-independant-india-will-be-great-building-on-the-success-of-people-like-j-n-tata/    . I complained about the pour printing not showing the steel mill to full effect. This stamp shows what is possible with more modern printing. You get a sense of what a massive operation the Iligan Steel Mill was.

Todays stamp is issue A214, a 10 Sentimos stamp issued by The Philippines on January 20th, 1970. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations showing off the Iligan Steel Mill. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents unused.

The steel mill was constructed by the government in 1952 an part of their National Shipyards and Steel Corporation. It was at the time the largest steel mill in southeast Asia, which remember excludes China and Japan. Operations commenced but were not efficient and lost a great deal of money for the government. The government owned management company then applied to the USA Export/Import Bank for a 60 million dollar loan. This seems a strange thing  to do as The Philippines was no longer a colony of the USA and the Export/Import banks job is to assist with American exports. The bank was not forthcoming with a loan but suggested instead that if the steel mill was in private hands the credit markets might be more open to it.

In 1962, the steel mill was sold for a small fraction of what it cost to a new firm controlled by the crony capitalist Jacinto family. For a time this succeeded in getting the mills losses off the governments books. Meanwhile the family used the steel mill as something to borrow against, not for investment in the mill but their lifestyle needs.

In 1974, the Jacintos having extracted what they could get out of the mill defaulted and the mill passed back to the government under a new government owned company, the National Steel Corporation. Losses continued and the government sold the mill off in the 1990s, with the Chinese owned Malaysian outfit, the Westmont Group, playing the part of the Jacintos. Apparently The Philippines had run out of domestic robber barons. The financial crisis in Asia in 1998 was the end for the Westmont Group and the Philippines had to nationalize the steel mill for the third time.

Hope for getting the losses off the books springs eternal and The Philippines again sold the steel mill to Ispat Industries of India in 2004. The financial crisis of 2008 was the end for the mill, as per usual, a great deal of money had been borrowed against it. Interestingly, the Singapore liquidators refused to take possession of the now closed steel mill as they would then be responsible for it. Ispat filed suit against their old bankers for not taking it, and the liabilities involved in owning it. This as greatly complicated the schemes of the local government and current potential robber baron SteelAsia. Closing it was the end. A new investor would have to put in a great deal of money to get it operating again. The point with all the prospective investors was to have some big shiny thing they could borrow against. Nobody believes making steel there could be profitable and the national government does not seem prepared to absorb the losses for the benefit of the workers or even the original import avoidance goal.

Well my drink is empty and I am ever more impressed by the private operators of steel mills around the world who keep them going year after year. This is quite an accomplishment when competing against others for whom losses don’t matter. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Czechoslovakia 1961, Novotony has another five year plan toward stagnation

Everything seemed to come  years late to communist Czechoslovakia. Here we have a 1961 five year plan to get industry beyond war rebuilding and on toward previous powerhouse status. Gee, shouldn’t that have come in 1951? Well not when it took Stalin until 3 years after his death to have his team in place. 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 shows a rolling mill bridge as part of a high tech textile plant. That this function is ever more automated shows the challenge facing the countries leadership. At the top of communist organizations there is often a quarrel between those up from the local trade union movement and the more intelectual, internationally aware aspects of the movement. Think Stalin versus Trotsky. Stalin would be looking at output and employment levels, while Trotsky might more be looking at showing off sophistication by say a trophy automated textile mill.

Todays stamp is issue A400, a 20 Haleru stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on January 20th, 1961. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations issued as part of the kickoff of the third 5 year plan to do with industrial development. This was the last stamp issue in connection with a five year plan initiation. Even the powers that be did no longer have their heart in it. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. This stamp was locally printed and not part of the farmed out for the international child collector so common at the time.

The area of Czechia had industrialized quite early and was considered the industrial heartland of the old Austria-Hungarian Empire. When it was down to just the ethnic German rumpstate of Austria in 1919, there were questions of joining Germany as the state would not be viable alone. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/07/19/gerrman-austria-1919-the-rump-state-no-one-wanted/ . Such an industrial powerhouse was then integrated heavily with the German industrial war effort of World War II. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/07/26/bohemia-and-moravia-1939-showing-off-batas-skyscraper-in-zlins-urban-utopia/ . The circumstances of how the Czechs fell to Germany in 1938-39 meant that the communist takeover post war was not so immediate as the prewar government in exile had more legitimacy. It took until 1948-49 for the communists to get a firm grip on things. Even here there was trouble as the same sort of phases happened. The first communists leaders were the old exiled fellows that were part of the 1920s Internationale movement. These were mainly Jewish intellectuals that were at odds  with Stalin’s industry first goals. Such people in the Soviet Union were purged in the 1930s but their fellow travelers managed to get in power in eastern Europe post war.  That the communist takeover was a few years late meant reindustrialization was begun off track. Stalin quickly got such leaders purged from eastern Europe, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/03/romania-1955-promoting-female-empowerment-or-just-stalin-in-a-skirt/   . Things again were behind schedule in Czechoslovakia and it was not until 1955, when Antonin Novotny a communist from the trade union movement was in power. By now however Stalin was himself dead and the Soviet Union was itself rethinking it’s industry first strategy.

The relative performance of the Czech five year plans show understandably poor performance compared to what might have been posible. Between 1948 and 1957 industrial output rose 170 percent. That sounds high but it must be remembered how low output was at the end of the war. To compare with actual industrial powerhouses, Germany and Japan were up about 300 percent in the same timeframe. Suddenly you no longer thought of the area as an industrial heartland. After the communists fell, more factories closed and the ones that stayed open were back to German ownership and the expertise being sought out in Czechia was the willingness to take less than western pay rates.

The lack of industry growth did not lead to total devastation as the country fell behind indusrially. The lefty internationalist intellectuals set up a film industry that was an important part of the New Wave Film movement that was also in France and Italy in the 1960s. Since in Czechoslovakia the films were part of official approved output, they benefited from higher budgets and professional studios more so than in the west. The uprisings of 1968 saw many of this group go into western exile. Simple industrial workers might be forgiven for feeling left out.

Well my drink is empty and I may pour another to throw at Antonin Novotny. He was pensioned off during the 1968 troubles after a more than a decade chance to turn around the difficult hand he was dealt. He forgot perhaps that the idea of the five year plan was that at the end you could measure results against goals. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

 

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USA 1948, Remembering the four Chaplains from the SS Dorchester after meeting U-223

The SS Dorchester was a cruise/transport ship that was converted to a troopship for war service. In 1943 it was headed for Greenland with 900 aboard, twice the cruising complement. It met it’s fate from a torpedo delivered by German U boat U223. About a quarter of the people aboard were saved by nearby coast guard cutters. A horrible loss for the USA. To lessen the blow, The USA made a big deal of four Chaplains, each of a different sect, who voluntarily gave up their life vests and perished. 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 idea that the leadership is the last to leave a distressed ship was the standard of seamanship. Remember the 3rd class females on the Titanic more likely to survive than higher deck first class men. Apparently such thoughts were slipping as the government decided to reinforce the former standard with the wonderfully politically correct act by the four chaplains of different faiths on the Dorchester. Sometimes an old standard needs reinforcement, as was shown by the recent Italian cruise ship disaster. Interestingly, the stamp design had to be modified before coming out, The four chaplains had not been dead for the required 10 years before a stamp can be issued. Thus their names were removed. Another rule that has since dropped away.

Todays stamp is issue A403, a 3 cent stamp issued by the USA on May 28rh, 1948. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

The SS Dorchester was built in 1926 and operated as a cruise and transport ship along the eastern coast of the USA between Miami and Boston. There were 300 passengers and 90 crew with a small capability to carry some freight. In early 1942 the ship began it’s war service with most of the same crew and still in private ownership. In 1943 there was a convoy headed for Greenland with 2 other cargo ships and three escorting Coast Guard cutters. The early morning torpedo hit came without warning and killed power to the steam engine. Thus the ship was not able to communicate it’s distress to escorts or even blow the abandon ship whistle. The water was so cold that it killed more than drowning but two of the coast guard cutters managed to save 230 of the 904 on board. The escorts were not attacked by the submarine U-223. The four chaplains who gave up their life vests and parrished were Rabbi Alexander Goode, Father John Washington, and Protestant ministers George Fox and Clark Poling. The ship sank in 20 minutes bow first, the opposite of what the stamp imagines.

U995, the only surviving Type VII U boat, at a Naval Memorial near Keil, Germany

U-223 was a Type VII German U-Boat constructed at Keil in 1942. The Type VII was the most common type of U-boat. It’s 1943 patrols in the North Atlantic saw it participate in 8 Wolfpacks. A Wolfpack was a tactic of mass attack by multiple subs on a convoy. The Sub would often try to avoid return fire by escorts after the attack by hiding underwater directly under the survivors in the water. U-223 sunk three ships of comparable size to the Dorchester. In another encounter  nearby depth charges forced the damaged sub to the surface and then it was shelled by British destroyer HMS Hesperus. It barely escaped badly damaged. The sub then transferred to the Mediterranean based at Toulon in occupied France. On March 29th, 1944 it was caught by three British destroyers off Palermo and sunk. In it’s last battle it sunk the British destroyer HMS Laforey. 23 of the submarine’s crew of 50 had lost their lives. The sub commander during the North Atlantic battles was Captain Lieutenant  Karl-Jurg Wachter. See also, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/09/09/germany-1943-u-boat-wolfpacks-bring-the-war-across-the-sea/     .

A later famous person was scheduled to be on SS Dorchester but missed the boat. Beat author Jack Kerouac was a merchant seaman and radioman on the ship. Right before sailing he received a telegram offering for Kerouac to play football at Columbia University. Later in the war the US Navy dismissed him from service after 7 days for being of indifferent character and processing a schizoid personality. Leave the fighting to real men I guess. They wouldn’t make decent beat authors anyway.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for all those that died in the Battle of the Atlantic. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.