448. Fashion, War Posters, Bandstands And Night Skies.

  Norfolk Island issued 5 stamps on 26 May 2014 on the subject of "Wearable arts" as mentioned in Blog 440. The stamps were designed by Mary Pavicich and lithographed by Southern Colour Print:-

  Ireland's An Post issued 2 stamps on 24 July 2014 to commemorate the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. The stamps, depicting Irish recruitment posters were designed by Ger Garland:-

  Royal Mail's single Europa stamp for 2014 will be a very half-hearted affair. The theme for 2014 is national musical instruments and Royal Mail's contribution interprets this theme by depicting the bandstand in Eastbourne and tiny musicians can be picked out in the design but I'm very hard-pressed to identify a single musical instrument on the stamp. Presumably, then, we must conclude that the British national musical instrument is a .....bandstand.

  The stamp is one of 6 values and accompanying miniature sheet of 4 different stamps which are on the subject of "Seaside Architecture". They are quite colourful stamps and give an interesting impression of a traditional English summer holiday so one really must ask why is the set to be issued on 18 September, when the summer is ended, children have returned to school after their summer break and the first hints of autumn are starting to show? 

  The issue was designed by Why Not Associates from photographs taken by Lee Maudsley and lithographed by International Security Printers and Enschede (the miniature sheet).

  The 97p value features Southwald lighthouse and is said to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Trinity House representing, like the Europa stamp, another very half-hearted approach to what is actually a very important and significant British anniversary. Trinity House was founded by Henry VIII on 20 May 1514 when he granted a charter to a mariners' fraternity called "The Guild of The Holy Trinity" "so that they might regulate the pilotage of ships in the King's streams". The first lighthouse was built by Trinity House at Lowestoft in 1609. In 1836 legislation was passed to put all the privately-owned lighthouses which had been built around England, Wales and The Channel Islands under the management of Trinity House.

  The "Post And Go" labels issued by Royal Mail through the A003 and A004 machines at the Philakorea 2014 World Stamp Exhibition which will be held from 7 to 12 August will also be sold from the Philatelic Bureau in Edinburgh but produced from "back office" machine B001:-

  The collector is faced with buying not one but two "Collectors" Packs because a pack is being issued for both the Machin Head labels and the Union Jack design with a total cost of £14.84p. As neither of these labels are to be sold directly from publically available machines situated in the United Kingdom, I shall treat them as exhibition souvenirs rather than postage stamps and therefore not bother to add them to my collection and as a result save myself almost £15:-

  When I saw the issue to be released by The Isle Of Man on 1 September 2014I noticed that there were only 4 stamps in the set and I wondered if the Manx Post Office was correcting its recent behaviour of issuing excessive numbers of stamp issues and number of stamps per set. By modern standards a set comprised of just 4 stamps seemed remarkably restrained. Unfortunately, when I looked at the face values of the stamps, my hopes were dashed - the total face value is £6.18p - still a high face-valued set but you get fewer stamps for your money! The reason given for releasing this issue is that The Isle Of Man has been designated as a "Dark Sky" site which means that the island has one of the clearest night skies in Europe which of course is a great aid to astronomers.

  The stamps were designed by Isle Of Man Advertising and lithographed by BDT:-

447. 4 August 1914 The Lamps Go Out.

  The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. - Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, British Foreign Secretary, 3 August 1914.

  1st August 1914 - The start of a Bank Holiday weekend in Britain. The primeminister, Herbert Asquith, is kept in London by a looming crisis on the Continent wherein Germany is preparing to attack Russia which may drag Russia's ally, France, into a war with it. The German ambassador in London, after a conversation with Sir Edward Grey, believes Great Britain would be neutral in such a war and that Britain is also guaranteeing French neutrality if Germany does indeed attack Russia.

  The British Cabinet meets but is in no mood for war but Winston Churchill, First Lord of The Admiralty, argues for full British mobilisation. Another minister, Herbert Samuel, emphasises that the decision should depend on whether the neutrality of Belgium is violated by Germany or whether Germany attacks France's north-west coast.

  At 4PM the French government orders full mobilisation of its military forces to begin on 2 August. An hour later the German Kaiser orders full German mobilisation.

  At 7PM the German 16th Division invades Luxemburg. 

  At 7.30 PM the German ambassador in St. Petersburg hands over Germany's  formal declaration of war on Russia. The evening is passed with the British attempting to clarify the confusion caused by Sir Edward's Grey's first conversation of the day with the German ambassador. Late in the evening crowds pour on to the streets of St. Petersburg. A telegram from King George V to his cousin, the Kaiser, suggesting a misunderstanding between Grey and the German ambassador arrives in Berlin at 11PM and as a result of that the Kaiser tells General Moltke, the German commander, "Now you can do what you want".

  2nd August 1914 - Having met the German ambassador earlier in the morning - Bank Holiday Sunday - Herbert Asquith chairs a Cabinet meeting. The cabinet remains divided but it is decided to allow Grey to tell the French that Britain would not allow Germany to use the English Channel for operations against northern France. Grey tells the French ambassador that "If the German fleet comes into the Channel or the North Sea to undertake hostile operations against the French coasts or shipping, the British fleet will give all the protection in its power".

 In the mid-afternoon reports are arriving in Paris that German troops are crossing the Franco-German border. French general mobilisation has begun.

  In both Germany and London there are peace demonstrations. At 6.30 PM the British cabinet meets again and a small majority emerges, including Lloyd George, who are in favour of action if Belgian neutrality is compromised.

  At 7PM the German ambassador in Brussels informs the Belgian Foreign Minister that Germany has evidence that the French are preparing to enter Belgian territory to enable them to attack Germany and because of this Germany will need to enter Belgium to defend itself. The Belgians are allowed 12 hours to reply but within a couple of hours the King of The Belgians and his Council of Ministers have agreed that Belgium could not give in to German demands and a reply is drafted.

  3rd August 1914 - In Britain it is Bank Holiday Monday. At 7AM the Belgians respond to the Germans' note refusing Germany's demands and the King of The Belgians appeals to King George V for diplomatic intervention to safeguard Belgium's integrity.

  After a Cabinet meeting in the morning, Sir Edward Grey addresses The House Of Commons at 3PM and lays out the case for defending Belgium and the north west coast of France. While King George V and Queen Mary are cheered by crowds in London the Russian ambassador in Berlin is attacked by a mob.

  At 6PM the German ambassador in Paris informs the French government that Germany considers itself to be in a "state of war with France". 

  The British Cabinet meets again in the evening and agrees to insist that the Germans withdraw their ultimatum to Belgium and afterwards Grey tells the French ambassador that if the Germans refuse to do so then "it will be war". In the late evening a friend, John Alfred Spender, visits Grey at the Foreign Office and, in the gathering dusk, they stand at a window in his office and watch out across St. James Park at the lamps being lit in Pall Mall. Grey says "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime".

  4th August 1914 - 

  At 8.02AM 6 infantry divisions and 3 cavalry divisions of the German Army invade Belgium at Gemmerich to begin an attack on the town of Liege. At 9AM a Belgian cavalryman, Antoine Fonck, is shot by German troops near Battice and becomes the first man to die in the First World War.

  Meanwhile in London, Sir Edward Grey is still seeking reassurances that Germany will respect Belgium's neutrality. At noon the King of The Belgians calls on Britain and France to come to his country's aid.

  At 2PM Sir Edward Grey instructs the British Ambassador in Berlin to request Germany's respect for Belgium's neutrality and that he requires a response to this request by midnight, German time, which will be 11PM in London.

  At 4.45PM, Herbert Asquith addresses the House Of Commons while crowds gather outside waiting for the declaration of war. At the end of his speech the House votes £105 million for the national services. A few minutes later a Royal proclamation is read outside the Royal Exchange which calls up all army reserves.

   Across Britain and the rest of The Empire people await news of the declaration of war. At 11PM, having received no German assurance of Belgium's neutrality, The United Kingdom of Great Britain And Ireland and its Empire is at war with Germany. 

  The British Declaration of War is binding on its Dominions which therefore also find themselves at war with Germany - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Newfoundland. As quoted on the stamp issued recently by Australia Post, the Australian prime minister, Joseph Cook, says "If there is to be a war, you and I shall be in it. We must be in it. If the old country is at war, so are we."

   

  Thus it was that the events of a bank holiday weekend meant young people from across the whole of Britain and its Empire would soon find themselves involved in a fight that would become known as "The Great War" or "The War To End All Wars". In the first month after the Declaration of War, in Britain alone, 500000 men had volunteered to join the forces and right across The Empire hundreds of thousands more volunteered to join the fight. Even in Ireland, nearing an uprising against the British, men came forward to join the British forces:-

 Sadly, despite all the sacrifices, instead of ending all wars, the First World War set the scene for another great conflict and afterwards our current world where war is anything but disappeared.

  A few of the ordinary young men who fought in the War have been depicted on postage stamps:-

  and, as described in Blogs 386 and 382, by using his photograph as the basis for a sheet of British "Smiler" stamps, I have my personal commemoration of my own grandfather, Richard White, who saw his first action at the age of 17 in the Second Battle of Ypres on 22 April 1915. Today I have used the stamp on a pair of recorded mail envelopes, the £1.10 postal rate being made up by stamps from the new British First World War stamps and Machin definitives, sent from my local post office with clear 4 August 2014 cancellations. If they arrive safely and unspoiled I will depict them in a future Blog.

446. Malaysia Features Foul Smelling Fruit But No Scratch And Sniff.

  Malaysia issued 4 stamps on 17 July 2014 which depict local fruit. The set was designed by Reign Design and printed in lithography by Percetaken Keselamasan Nasional. The 80 sen value depicts a durian fruit which gives off a spectacularly unpleasant smell when cut open - Wikipedia says that the smell "evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine and raw sewage. The persistence of its odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia". Let us be grateful to Pos Malaysia that it has not chosen this particular issue to be one which has a "scratch and sniff" feature to it. On the other hand, perhaps Pos Malaysia missed the opportunity of producing one of the most memorable stamps in philatelic history.

  Bermuda issued a very attractive set of 5 stamps on 15 July 2014 as the first part of its three set series titled "Bermuda in Bloom". The values are 5c, 10c, 25c, 35c and $10:-

  Cyprus surprisingly surcharged 3 of the "Four Seasons" stamps which were originally issued on 12 March 2014 and released them on 1 August 2014. Presumably these fulfill the role of provisional definitives to meet changed postal needs:-

  The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was also planning to issue 2 surcharged stamps on 4 July 2014 but I have not yet seen any details of these items.

  Hong Kong China released its new definitive set on 24 July 2014. The set consists of 16 values with a top face value of $50. The set is accompanied by 2 miniature sheets - the first contains the 12 lowest values and the second contains the top 4 issues - and there are 4 associated booklets - $17 (10 x $1.70), $22 (10 x $2.20), $29 (10 x 2.90) and $37 (10 x $3.70). There are also 4 coil stamps. The set was designed by Shirman Lai and lithographed by Enschede.

booklet covers

booklet covers

  Singapore Post will issue a sheetlet of 15 different stamps and 1 accompanying miniature sheet on 4 August 2014 to commemorate the 49th anniversary of Independence:-

  Canada Post has announced that it will issue a set of stamps in August or September 2014 to commemorate Canadian comedy performers. The first design to be released as publicity for the issue is a Permanent (85c) value which features Mike Myers and some of the film roles he played in "Wayne's World" and the "Austin Powers" series:-

  This week's issue from Australia Post commemorates siginicant national anniversaries in the form of the centenaries of the country's first military aircraft and submarine. The pair of stamps will be released on 5 August 2014 and were designed by Jamie and Leanne Tuffrey and lithographed by EGO. 

  The stamps specifically commemorate the first flight of an Australian military aircraft flown by Lt. Eric Harrison at Point Cook in Victoria and HMS AE1 and HMS AE2 which were commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy in February 1914. Both of the submarines took part in the occupation of Rabaul in German New Guinea during the First World War. On 14 September 1914 HMS AE1 was lost off the coast of New Britain with the loss of all hands whilst AE2 participated in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915 but was damaged by a Turkish gunboat on 30 April 1915 and scuttled by its crew. A miniature sheet combining the 2 stamps will also be issued.

   And so to the latest products released on behalf of a Commonwealth country by the agency which, like the poor, is with us always, Stamperija. This time the country whose name which appears on the products in question is Maldives. Ten issues have been produced with a stated release date of 3 July 2014 - one is a "special issue" which has been mentioned previously - the 2 sheetlets which commemorate the 2014 Football World Cup finals in Brazil (see Blog 422) - and the others are the usual sheetlets of 4 different "stamps" with accompanying miniature sheets. There are 9 sheetlets and 9 miniature sheets in all, this time on the overall subject of "Sport". The individual subjects are:- Cricket, Muhammed Ali, Horse racing, Table tennis, Chess, Judo, Golf, Rally racing and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, the subject of which is about as relevant to The Maldive Islands as the recent Stamperija-produced set from Mozambique on the subject of polar bears (see Blog 436).

  Thus, up until 3 July 2014, Maldives has had 234 "stamps" and 57 miniature sheets produced on its behalf by Stamperija during 2014 which makes a grand total of 291 philatelic items (this of course does not include the numerous imperforate varieties which have also been produced).