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Pakistan 1954, The “Light of the World” designs a tomb for her husband the “Conqueror of the World”

A large empire rules over a quarter of the people on Earth deserves to be remembered, and this one is by some of it’s surviving architecture. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of tea and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Pakistan was newly independent when this stamp was issued. What better way to celebrate the independence than by showing off relics of a long ago empire that the people might feel more connection to than their recent colonial memory. In the early days anything can seem possible and reminding of past greatness can be a good tool for that.

The stamp today is issue O47, a one and a half Anna stamp issued by Pakistan in 1954. It features the tomb of Jahangir, a Mughal Emperor from the 1600s. It was part of a 7 stamp issue celebrating the seventh anniversary of independence from Great Britain. The service overprint signifies the stamp was for official use. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.50 used.

The Mughal Empire stretched through much of current day India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in the 14th and 15th centuries. The government was Sunni Muslim and the leaders were of mixed Indian and Persian decent. Hindu was allowed to be practiced and Hindu civil law governed them. Muslim law was only applied to Muslims. The empire is remembered for it’s architecture that was heavily influenced by the Persians. The Taj Mahal is the most famous example of such architecture.

Mughal Emperor Jahangir ruled in the 1600s and though he suffered a defeat at the Afghan city of Kandahar he succeeded in expanding the empire. His name means in old Persian, “conqueror of the world” He didn’t quite do that but a quarter of the world’s then population was in his realm. He had 18 wives the last of which was his and his subjects favorite. Upon the marriage, her second, she was given the name Nur Jahan. This means “light of the world.”

The Emperor Jahangir died in 1626 on his way back to his home in Lahore. Nur Jahan set out to build a Persian style tomb in the peaceful gardens of  the home. She was interested in architecture and the result was an elaborate tomb with four minarets that displayed a resurgence in Timurid architecture at the time. The tomb faced Mecca and was decorated with Frescoes. It took 10 years to build. Jahangir’s third son became Emperor having murdered the two older sons. It was not a good time for Nur Jahan as she was confined to palace. She had backed the wrong son in the power struggle.

Nur Jahan holding a portrait of Emperor Jahangir.

When Nur Jahan later died she was placed in a tomb nearby. Later the tombs was damaged by the Sikh Empire under Maharajah Rangit Singh. His occupying general lived at the tomb and took relics back to Punjab when they ran the area.  Some believe the Sikhs even stole a dome off the tomb. British rule saw repairs made but a new railroad routed between the tombs of husband and wife dividing them. The site still exists and is a protected heritage site but some encroachment of the property was allowed.

Sikh Maharajah Rajit Singh. Wars with Britain eventually ended Sikh rule of the area. Note the crazy high heel shoes and little foot stool. Out of place for a warrior King?

Well my drink is empty so I will salute the architectural vision of Nur Jahan, the light of the world. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Dominican Republic 1951,Trujillo builds a beach resort for Batista

Today is one of those stories of a badly remembered leader who built many things that his successors couldn’t keep going. 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 today features a newly built beach front resort. The kind of all inclusive beach and spa resorts that the Caribbean is famous for. The Hotel Hamaca was one of the first. Yet the angle of the photo and the poor printing makes the hotel look like an airport terminal. A failure.

Todays stamp is issue A100, a 1 centavo stamp issued by the Dominican Republic in 1951. The stamp features the Hotel Hamaca in Boca Chica. It is part of a 7 stamp issue that features the hotels of the Dominican Republic. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Rafael Trujillo was the strongman leader of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. This is not completely true as during times of unpopularity with America he stepped back and let an aged vice president and his brother be his puppet. In 1955 he celebrated 25 years of rule with much public celebration even though he was theoretically not in power at the time. He tried to rename the capital Santo Domingo Trujillo City in honor of his rebuilding efforts after a hurricane. He even had a stamp issue for his mother for Mother’s Day.

Trujillo did much infrastructure building and regained control of the countries customs duties which were being seized by USA in lieu of debt repayment. He also worked to better control the border with desperately poor Haiti. He offered to take up to 100,000 Jewish refugees at the time of the Holocaust. In the event, only 800 came and most moved on quickly to the USA. Trujillo was assassinated while in his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air by military leaders. His family was able to remain in power long enough to have the conspirators tracked down and killed but soon there was a second revolution and the family was forced to leave the country going initially to France.

The monument built by later losers at the place President Trujillo was assassinated. If you are going to build a monument to show your country backward, it is best I suppose to make it as ugly and Satanic as this one.

The Hotel Hamaca in Boca Chica was quite the landmark when it was built. It lies on the largest lagoon in the Caribbean. There was a Trujillo vacation home in the bay that included a private zoo. In early 1959, Nearby Cuban strongman Batista left the country with his family and close advisers. He also allegedly made it out with many millions. Trujillo took a large financial tribute from Batista and allowed them to stay at the Hotel Hamaca. Denied entry into USA or France, they later went on to Portugal.

The Hotel Hamaca was closed very shortly after Trujillo left power. Resorts of it’s type are very successful in the Carabean so a quick closing is a rather stinging indictment of the countries future leaders. The most basic function of government is to keep things going. The hotel was eventually reopened in the early 90s and today operates as the Be Live Experience Hamaca Gardens. According to the online reviews it is not in a good state with much intrusion by locals panhandling the guests. In the old days Trujillo would have done that for the people, and only the important guests like Batista.

Hotel Hamaca reborn as the Be Live Experience Hamaca Gardens Hotel. What sane person would think that a better name?

Well my drink is empty leaving me wondering why it is so hard to find a waiter in an all inclusive resort. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Canada 1971, Trudeau is outraged about Laporte’s kidnapping and murder, so the perps got 8 years in jail

A politician is kidnapped from his front yard and murdered and yet the confessed and convicted murderers get only 8 years in jail. We will explore today how this can happen. 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 today looks older than it is. By the 1970s, most stamps including Canada’s offered bold colors. The only hints that this stamp is newer is the font that Canada is written in and the fact that 7 cents is too much to mail a letter in the earlier period. Perhaps the bland grey portrait of Mr. Laporte was thought in keeping with a mourning period. I think this is wrong. Turning him into a bland grey figure lessens the loss of what was a brutal crime where a man was targeted based on his moderate political views and for the crime of being willing to serve his province and country.

Todays stamp is issue A285, a 7 cent stamp issued by Canada on October 20th, 1971. The stamp honors Pierre Laporte a year after he was murdered. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it was mint or used.

Pierre Laporte was a journalist, lawyer, and politician from Quebec. As a journalist, his work was instrumental in alleging corruption in the regime of then Quebecois Premier Maurice Duplessis. Allegations of impropriety should always be taken with a grain of salt when they come from political opponents and that was the case here. Mr. Laporte was an active member of the rival Quebec Liberal Party and later served in the Quebec National Assembly and was provincial minister of Labor when the Liberal party was in power in the 60s. Though not as radical as some, the Liberal Party in Quebec broke away from the national Liberal party of Trudeau and set up separate Quebec pension and health systems and nationalized the electric utility in Quebec. What it also did was favor remaining in Canada. For this sin, Laporte had to pay with his life.

The Front for the Liberation of Quebec was a radical communist group that sought the succession of Quebec from Canada. Further they wanted to establish and independent Quebec that was francophone and only francophone and that the country be an ethnically cleansed communist worker’s paradise. They had much support from left wing types and engaged in 160 outbreaks of violence that killed eight people.

Flag pf the FLQ. That red star really brings forth the French heritage

Mr. Laporte was playing football in the front yard of his home with his nephew when he was kidnapped at gunpoint. The FLQ declared him the Minister of Unemployment and Assimilation. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau feigned outrage at the kidnapping and enacted special police powers to find the cell of the FLQ responsible.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1970 on TV announcing the roundup of the FLQ. He didn’t mention how short the jail terms would turn out.

The remains of Mr. Laporte were found eight days later having been strangled. FLQ support dropped as a result of the violence but Trudeau was nowhere man when it was time to see that the perpetrators of the kidnap and murder pay for their crimes. The death penalty was not possible in Canada at the time but sentences of life and thirty years were handed out to the for men who confessed and were convicted. This was just for show. The men served an average of 8 years in jail  and were even allowed to write books afterward that justified their actions and allowed them to profit from their crimes. One of the books was made into a movie partially funded by the film board of Canada. ‘Pierre Trudeau failed his people in allowing this to happen. I am sure his supporters will want to pass the buck on this but the buck stops with him.

FLQ people in the subsequent round up. The fellow would be able to shake his fist outside of police custody soon enough

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if the radical that was the young Pierre Trudeau led him to secretly sympathize with the FLQ or whether Laporte was too much of a like minded rival. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

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Liberia 1921, Free African Americans colonize Africa

As the 19th century went along, there were ever more African Americans that had their freedom. Some thought these folks were in a great position to set up an American colony in Africa. 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 today is from 1921 Liberia. Liberia was one of the few countries of Africa that was not a colony of a European power. One might then hope that the stamp offerings would as such be a interesting local view of the Africa at the time. Instead we are faced with a very American style portrait of the President of Liberia. You see Liberia had a caste system in place where the tiny minority of people that could trace their lineage to America held all the political power. They retained American ways and this reflected in the no doubt American printed stamps. In this issue there were some African scenes and animals, but only the ones at silly high denominations, for stamp collectors.

Todays stamp is issue A76, a five cent stamp issued by Liberia in 1921. The stamp features President Daniel Howard. President Howard had left office in 1920 and lived until 1935. I can only think that the American printers did not know he was no longer President. By 1923 there was a stamp issue with the then current President, so eventually they got caught up. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. I mentioned above some of the high denomination stamps in this issue. They have fared better in the market. The $1 stamp featuring a bongo antelope is worth $20 mint. The $5 stamp featuring an elephant is worth $32.50 mint.

Liberia was the idea of Paul Cuffe, a free African American who owned a shipping company.  His Ashanti father had been freed by his Quaker owner and married an American Indian that gave more property rights. Cuffe dreamed of sending ships full of freed slaves from America to the west coast of Africa where they would be free to build a new country. He believed that the Protestant religion and the relative educational achievement of the freed slaves would serve them well.

Paul Cuffe

Cuffe foresaw his ships coming back full of Liberian goods to be sold in America. He had studied closely similar British activities in Sierra Leone and concluded not enough guidance had been given to quickly establish exportable crops. The first ship, named Mayflower of Liberia brought the first colonists in 1821.

The Mayflower of Liberia ship

The freed slaves did much to emulate what was learned in America. A constitution modeled an the American was enacted. The True Whig political party was modeled on the then USA Whig Party. Coffee plantations were formed. Even the architecture resembled America. Like the USA though, all of this only applied to Americo-Liberians. Indigenous tribes were not given any freedom and indeed where traded in contract labor schemes that resembled slavery in all but name.

Daniel Howard, the President on the stamp ruled during a troubled time in Liberia’s history. He faced an uprising from the Kru tribe of indigenous Africans. They had avoided slavery by developing a valuable skill of seamanship. Indeed they had taken to tattooing their foreheads to avoid being mistaken for slaves. They did not take well to being consigned to a lower caste in Liberia. The rebellion was only put down when an American Navy Cruiser the USS Chester appeared off the coast. It had been diverted to see that the Howard government did not fall.

World War I also occurred in Liberia while under President Howard.  He tried to remain neutral but the war cut off much of the trade that was so relied upon to service Liberia’s large debt. Desperate, Howard allowed the French to set up a telegraph station in Monrovia, the capital. The Germans protested and then attacked Monrovia from a U boat. This forced Howard to declare war on Germany and seize all German economic assets in the country. Liberia ratified the treaty of Versailles and joined The League of Nations

Howard served out two terms and left office in 1920. His successor was also a member of the True Whig party. Indeed that party ruled uninterrupted for over 100 years ending in 1980. His successor was even more unlucky than Howard. He was forced to step down after the League of Nations caught Liberia selling forced “contract” indigenous labor to Spanish colonists in the Spanish colony of Fernando Po.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if the enterprise of Liberia would have gone better if enough freed blacks could have attracted enough freed slaves to enable a population majority of the area. Had he lived, it was the policy of Abraham Lincoln to encourage freed slaves to Liberia. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Yugoslavia 1934, It is dangerous to rule the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Governing in the Balkans can be dangerous, hence today is our first black outlined memorial stamp. So slip on tour 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 Philatelists.

The stamp today is a common Yugoslavia stamp from the early 30s of King Alexander I of the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The King was assassinated in 1934 and a new printing of the stamp was made with a black outline around the stamp. This was a common way to mourn a deceased leader at the time.

Todays stamp is issue A7, a 50 paras stamp issued by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on October 17th, 1934. The stamp added the black outline to the earlier King Alexander stamp issue. The issue contained 14 stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed in the aftermath of World War I. The royal house of Serbia was given the wider mandate. King Alexander was not originally in line. However his older brother George had been forced to renounce any claim to the throne. George was known to be unstable and there was a public incident where he kicked a valet in the stomach so hard that he eventually died. Alexander took the throne officially in 1921 but was already serving as regent for his elderly father. He married a Romanian princess in 1921. He had early hoped to marry a Russian Princess but she had been executed in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Alexander’s older brother once Crown Prince George. He tried later to recant his renunciation of the Throne but Alexander had him locked up in an asylum. WWII German occupiers let him out and he was the one royal that Marshal Tito allowed to stay. He lived into the 1970s. Yugoslavia could have used an adult King in the war.

The area that took the name Yugoslavia in 1929 was a wild place. In 1928, a Serb Deputy of the National Assembly assassinated 5 Croat Deputies including the leader of  the Croat Peasants Party. In response King Alexander banned political parties and assumed executive power. He hoped to clamp down on separatists  attitudes.

It was not to be. In 1934, while on a trip to Marseilles, France, King Alexander was killed by a Bulgarian assassin who was working for Macedonia autonomy. The assassination happened while on parade in an open limousine while surrounded by cavalrymen and sitting next to the French Foreign Minister. The assassin jumped on the running board of the limousine shouting vive le King with a submachine gun hidden in a bouquet of flowers. The French Foreign Minister was killed by return fire from French police and the assassin was slowed by a sabre blow from a French cavalryman and then beaten to death by the crowd of onlookers. The assassination was captured by newsreel cameras and shown around the world. Preparing for the state funeral it was discovered that King Alexander had a large heraldic eagle tattooed on his chest.

King Alexander I’s assassin, born Velichko Kerin. He had lots of aliases, the best, Vlado the Chauffer

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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British Guiana, going independant means choosing between the Indians and the Africans

A late colonial era stamp displaying Sugar cane production facilities. This is quite poignant to the choices facing Guyana upon independence. 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 today is from the last decade of colonial rule in what was then British Guiana. So we get to see Queen Elizabeth, still the Queen so many years later. She looks down on a sugar cane production facility. The sugar cane industry was 70 percent of the economy at the time. There was probably some taking pride in what we bequeathed to the colony but it really shows the difficult choices facing the people.

The stamp today is issue A60, an 8 cent stamp issued by the crown colony of British Guiana on December 1st, 1954. It was part of a 16 stamp issue displaying interesting sites around Guiana.  The most expensive individual stamp in the world sold in 2014 for $9.5 million was from British Guiana. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth 25 cents. Too low, this is an interesting stamp. The country never really got going though, so there is little local demand that should be pushing values up.

British Guiana was a territory that the British were probably happy to unload. The sugar cane industry is very labor intensive. So many African slaves were brought in. Also many Indians who were brought in as contract labourers after slavery ended to replace their labour and stayed as the economy’s merchants and traders. These two groups far outnumbered British colonists and indigenous natives. The outlawing of slavery made the economics of the industry less lucrative and introduced labour strife, where the workers understandably wanted to improve their poor lot. The industry was nationalized in 1970, and now accounts for just 4% of Guyana’s low GDP. It is still a vehicle to employ a lot of people and Guyana has worked a deal with the EU to pay 3 times the world price for sugar to keep it going. An inefficient government run outfit as seen output continually drop. The Chinese have recently made an investment, I doubt they will see a return.

The politics of the country extended colonial rule for a decade or more. Parties were formed on racial lines with the Indian party being openly communist and the African party feigning capitalism. The Indian party kept winning elections and the British would then delay, gerrymander, and reschedule to try to avoid Guiana becoming communist immediately upon independence. Independence was finally achieved in 1966 with the African party in charge. A 1968 election saw the African party also going communist  and ending ties to the Commonwealth.

The country, now spelled Guyana never really became successful. Over 1 percent of the population emigrates every year, mostly to the USA and Canada. I already described the massive subsidy from the EU. There is also much generosity from the USA. Debts have been forgiven and the entire wheat supply of Guyana is an annual gift of the USA. So much is given that Guyana sells excess on the world market. It is still one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

As I stated above, Guyana’s sugar cane output is down, about 2/3rds since independence. The cost structure in country is unable to compete at market prices. There are things that could be done to automate both in the fields and in the processing. These advances are coming out of India. To do so would require a great deal of investment from outside. It would also however reduce employment levels and transfer that wealth to the outside owners. Remember that was the very powerful indictment of slave times. The transfer of wealth even further to Indians leaves the black residents in the lurch. No wonder the black political party came out as communist once in power. How else to keep their people employed?

Red communist banners to save an old sugar cane plantation. Why not? What are those folks supposed to do when it closes? Note to our communist friends. Why don’t more of your protest look like this, simple people that work and want to keep working.
A modern processing facility. Not much has changed from the old stamp. Maybe that is for the best.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018

 

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Austria 1916, a last respectful view of the past, before the world changes

A stamp issue of the better of the monarchs as a near last stamp issue of the empire seems a fitting culmination. So slip om 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 today is a very formal portrait of a leader from over a century before. To be accurate the stamp was issued by the Empire of Austria-Hungary. Yet Joseph II on the stamp was actually from the Holy Roman Empire. What the two empires from different periods share was the Hapsburg Royal Line. Knowing this shows the stamp issue as more personal and less about changing borders or even the people. No wonder the days of monarchy were numbered.

Today’s stamp is issue A22, a 3 heller stamp issued by the Empire of Austria-Hungary from 1908-1916. It shows Joseph II, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1770-1790. It was part of an eighteen stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The stamp to look out for in this issue is the 10 krone stamp featuring Franz Joseph. It is worth $190 mint.

Joseph II was a Hapsburg emperor from Austria. At the time, the Holy Roman Empire ruled much of central Europe. This did not include France despite fashioning itself as the successor to Charlemagne. It also did not include Rome despite again being fashioned after ancient Rome. He did have an in with France as his sister was Marie Antoinette.

Joseph was unlucky in love. He loved his first wife, Isabella of Parma, but her infatuations were with his sister, Maria Christina. Isabella died young at age 21 after a difficult pregnancy produced a daughter followed by a string of miscarriages. The daughter then herself died at age 9 of small pox. He was distraught and had a loveless 2 year second marriage with no issue. His cruelty to his second wife was shown by not visiting her on her deathbed nor attending her funeral. He admitted later he should have shown her more kindness.

Princess Isabella of Parma

Joseph was very aggressive militarily which made it difficult for him to make alliances as no foreign leader could trust him. He once heard his friend the King of Prussia was sick so prepared an army to try to grab Silesia if he died. The Prussian King recovered and that was the end of that friendship.

In domestic issues, Joseph was considered enlightened, but many of his reforms just did not stick. He tried to advance education and use it to try to standardize the German language. This did not succeed. He tried to end capital punishment, but it was quickly brought back after his death. He tried to free the serfs in the Empire but this was opposed by both serfs and the nobility. The reason the serfs opposed it is that it required their labors to be paid in money while the whole system the serfs knew was based on barter. He announced freedom of religion but was unable to pry the Catholic church away from the Pope in Rome. He did have success in some legal reform and the economics of the empire were sound. Joseph himself was not satisfied with his achievements. He asked that the epitaph on his tomb read, “Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook.” Overall history has treated Joseph II more kindly than he treated himself.

Austria-Hungary itself ended a few years after this stamp. Much land was lost and the various countries contained went their separate ways. The Hapsburg rule ended. To see an Austrian stamp from a decade later could be 50 years later in how much more modern the style became.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

 

 

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The last white Rajah of Sarawak, much to the annoyance of many.

The Sultan of Brunei offers a territory to a British adventurer in perpetuity, until it isn’t. 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 comes from the island of Borneo. The area of Sarawak was ruled by a white rajah, in a system loosely modeled on British India, except with a more prominent local representation. This local representation allows the white rajah to just wear an ordinary business suit on the stamp. He did not have to pretend he was local when he was not as with so many Kings who are really from somewhere else.

The stamp today is issue A17, a 3 cent stamp issued by the Rajah of Sarawak in 1922. The stamp features Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke and is part of a 21 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.40 used. The stamp to look out for in this issue is the 8 cent yellow. It is worth $70 used.

Sarawak, initially just the area around Kuching was awarded to British explorer James Brooke. He had helped the Sultan of Brunei quell a tribal uprising. The area was populated by Muslim Malayan tribes with a minority of ethnic Chinese. Brooke established a Rajah that was independent from Britain. He was succeeded by his nephew and then later by his nephew’s son, Charles Vyner Brooke. The rajah was successful in developing the local industry, most particularly oil drilling. He had a local council that advised him and for the most part was a protector of local customs, with the exception of headhunters who were pursued until the practice mostly died out locally.

Charles Vyner Brooke faced a new challenge in the form of Japanese ambitions. He turned over much power to the local council and fled to Australia with a sizable grant from the treasury of Sarawak. He destroyed much of the infrastructure to avoid it falling to the Japanese. At war end, the Australian Army landed and  Brooke was back on his family throne. He lacked the funds to rebuild Sarawak so proposed a controversial idea of becoming a British Crown Colony. This was especially controversial because the Rajah was by then mainly ceremonial and the locals had much self rule.

This was also a problem regarding the Rajah succession. Charles had named his nephew Anthony Rajah Muda, prospective. This angered his wife Sylvia of Sarawak who wanted to see the title go to her daughter. This was not allowed by Islamic Law or Charles Brooke’s will but her life saw many schemes to dispute Anthony’s claim to the thrown by pointing out he married a commoner and was disreputable. Anthony in turn opposed Sarawak becoming a crown colony. After the Crown Colony came to pass Anthony Brooke was banned from Sarawak by the colonial administration. A crown governor, Duncan Stewart, was assassinated and there were rumors that Anthony was in on the plot. The assassin, Rosli Dhobi, a teenager, turned out to be an activist who sought Sarawak’s union with Indonesia. Dhobi was hanged. Interesting in modern times the kid’s remains were moved to Sarawak’s Heroes Mausoleum. I guess you can’t just leave the mausoleum empty.

Teenager Rosli Dhobi, center, caught after stabbing to death British Governor Duncan Stewart. The British officer on the right, the throng of fez wearing local soldiers and the two tough Sikh guards give a nice colonial atmosphere don’t they. Well not perhaps for the Governor.

The colony in the 60s was then seceded to a newly independent Malaysia. Malaysia allowed Anthony Brooke to return to Sarawak having renounced his title. Upon his death in 2012, the Malaysian British High Commissioner had released British documents that cleared Anthony Brooke of the assassination. Late in her life in 1969, Charles Vyner Brooke’s widow, Sylvia of Sarawak released a book titled “Queen of the Headhunters.”

Would be post war white Rajah Anthony Brooke as a young man at Eton. How does the song go… the playing fields of Eton have made him positively brave.

Well my drink is empty so I will pour another to toast the Brooke family, The White Rajahs. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Bulgaria 1911, Czar Ferdinand, wanted to rule a new Byzantium, but too busy with quarrels

On his deathbed, after stabbed by the Czar’s assassins, a former prime minister exclaims, “The people will forgive me everything, except bringing him here.” 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 must say I am fond of the visuals of todays stamp. A German descended King takes on the regalia of a Russian Czar to try to fit in a new Balkan country. You just know there will be pointless wars and plots and personal decadence, when you dig in.

The stamp today is issue A23, a 5 Stotinki stamp issued by the Kingdom of Bulgaria on February 14th, 1911. The stamp displays Czar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. It was part of a 12 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Bulgaria emerged as a kingdom from the falling back Ottoman Empire. A Germanic royal was picked to lessen the influence of Russia in the area. The Bulgarian people were Slavic and Orthodox Christian. Ferdinand I was Catholic. Stefan Stambolov, was appointed the young King’s regent and government minister. The Russians had attempted a coup on the previous King and Stambolov wanted to limit Russian interference.

Czar Ferdinand had an ambition to create a new Byzantium ruled by him that would consolidate gains at the expense of the retreating Ottomans. However, he was in the Balkans and was not able to keep a united front with Serbia and Greece. Through Macedonians he attacked his former allies and though successful in expanding and economically developing Bulgaria, his crusade for a new Byzantium was not to be.

He was also quarrelling with his former Regent and now Prime Minister Stambolov. Stambolov resigned after an assassination attempt and got his revenge by telling a German newspaper about Ferdinand’s lifestyle. The married King was bisexual, having affairs with numerous commoner women who he fathered illegitimate heirs whom he supported financially. As he got older he interest turned to men and chased after many valets and young army officers. He also made frequent trips to the island of Capri in Italy. Capri at the time was a notorious destination for gay trysts. Ferdinand survived the scandal but eventually had to abdicate after choosing wrong in World War I. The Czar’s lifestyle wasn’t all controversial, he was also a noted botanist and yes, philatelist.

Stambolov had to pay for his disloyalty. Despite wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying a gun in retirement, Stambolov was attacked and stabbed in the face, killing him. Czar Ferdinand is believed behind the plot. Stambolov is considered the father of modern Bulgaria.

Prime Minister and Regent Stefan Stambolov, as remembered on modern Bulgarian money
Ferdinand, no matter his lifestyle or who he had killed, was King. Therefore he gets the stamps, yes I know, old stamps.

After the King abdicated in 1918, he moved to Germany and lived in fine style for another 30 years. Below are his thoughts later in life. “Kings in exile are more philosophic under reverses than ordinary individuals; but our philosophy is primarily the result of tradition and breeding, and do not forget that pride is an important item in the making of a monarch. We are disciplined from the day of our birth and taught the avoidance of all outward signs of emotion. The skeleton sits forever with us at the feast. It may mean murder, it may mean abdication, but it serves always to remind us of the unexpected. Therefore we are prepared and nothing comes in the nature of a catastrophe. The main thing in life is to support any condition of bodily or spiritual exile with dignity. If one sups with sorrow, one need not invite the world to see you eat.”

Well my drink is empty and I think I will refrain from making any judgements about the Czar, too dangerous. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.

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Madagascar 1908, The French Exile the last Queen by Sedan Chair

An African Queen is exiled overnight by Sedan Chair and that if what the new French colonial authority decides to put on one of the first 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 today’s offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp  has a real feel of sticking it to the locals. France had only just conquered the place and instead of promising a better future or showing the sights of the place they issue this threatening stamp. If we can exile the Queen, just think of what we could do to you. The former Merina Kingdom did not issue stamps so it is likely the stamps would only be of use to colonial French.

The stamp today is issue A9, a 3 centimes stamp issued by the French Colony of Madagascar from 1908-1928. It displayed a sedan chair, which is a chair or supported by horizontal posts that in turn are carried by a team of peoples shoulders. The stamp was a part of a 36 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents. If Madagascar ever develops a stamp collecting hobby, ha ha, this stamp should rapidly increase in value as an historical artifact.

Sedan chair

The Merina Kingdom had ruled Madagascar for many centuries. By tradition, a Queen from the hill people would marry a man from the coastal area who would then serve as Prime Minister. In the late 19th century, a deal was struck that gave France, Madagascar in return for allowing Britain, Zanzibar. The French landed and conquered the island in 1895. Only 60 French were lost in the battles but several thousand fell to malaria. Initially the last Queen, Ranavalona III was allowed to stay virtually under house arrest in her palace. She signed papers naming the new colonial governor and was surprised to know she would not have to take him as a husband, as was the local custom.

After some rebellion on the part of the local peasants, the French decided that Queen Ranavalona should go into exile, first to the island of Reunion and later to Algiers. Early one morning a few of her family and servants were loaded on to sedan chairs and taken on a several day journey to the coast where the boat to Reunion was waiting. The journey was long and perhaps realizing this was to be her last sight of her country, she was angry and quite drunk. At the boat she met up with her niece, and heir apparent, 14 years old and eight months pregnant with the baby of a French soldier. A rough boat journey saw her niece give birth to a daughter but die 5 days later. Queen Ranavalona adopted the girl. The girl ended up a nurse and socialite in France.

Queen Ranavalona III with grand neice Marie Louise in Paris in 1905. Marie Louise died childless in 1947

In exile in Algiers, the Madagascar colony paid her a small stipend but she was chronically short of funds, The French governor in Algiers wrote several times to his counterpart in Madagascar asking them to raise her pension but the requests were ignored. The Queen made repeated formal requests to be allowed to visit Madagascar but these were all refused. She was eventually allowed trips to Paris where as a Queen, she made quite an impression on the social scene. She died in Algiers in 1917 and again the Algiers Governor had to write Madagascar to try to get them to live up to keeping up her Algiers tomb. These were again ignored but in 1937 her remains were moved to the royal tombs in Madagascar.

An independent Madagascar did not treat their Royals any better. The Royal complex caught on fire mysteriously in 1995 and many royal relics burned or were looted. The tombs of the royals were all destroyed but remains appeared in the town square the next day that turned out to be Ranavalona III. The fire was officially an accident but many believe it was arson by the government to distract from a corruption scandal. The site had been on a list to become a UNESCO historical site.

Well my drink is empty unlike Queen Ranavalona’s. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2018.