The Postage Stamp in War Part 4

(Signed) ROBERTS,

_Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief British Forces in South Africa._

The Administrator shortly afterwards issued the following

NOTICE.

It is hereby notified for general information that Orange Free State postage stamps, in use up to the 14th inst., are no longer valid; surcharged stamps of the same denomination having been subst.i.tuted.

(Signed) A. FALCK, _Administrator._

General Post Office, _Bloemfontein, March 22nd, 1900._

[Ill.u.s.tration: 98]

The stamps of the Orange Free State were successively overprinted "V.R.I." and "E.R.I." (_Fig._ 98), and later on new stamps were issued with the portrait of King Edward (_Fig._ 99).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 99 100]

Cape of Good Hope stamps were also used in the new Colony with a special overprint reading "Orange River Colony" (_Fig._ 100).

A sixpence blue stamp of the Orange Free State (_type of Fig._ 98) was in readiness for issue at Bloemfontein when the British forces took over the control, and a few of these escaped the "V.R.I." overprint.

The stamp is familiar to collectors with the overprint, and strictly speaking, without the overprint it has no record of postal use.

A type-set label was issued by the Orange Free State early in the war to indicate the franking of official correspondence probably on military service. The stamp has a border of fancy type ornament and simple type inscriptions in three lines "IN DIENST--R.D.M.--O.V.S."

The so-called "Commando Brief" stamp alleged to have franked the correspondence of burghers on commando is a bogus production.

KRUGERSDORP. The South African Republic stamps alleged to have been used in this Transvaal town with V.R.I _typewritten_ across them are believed to be purely fict.i.tious creations.

KURUMAN. During the siege of this town in British Bechua.n.a.land Cape of Good Hope stamps were overprinted "KURUMAN BESIEGED" and the date, but they are not fully credited by philatelists as _bona fide_ issues.

LYDENBURG. During the temporary occupation of this South African Republic Town in September, 1900, the stamp commemorative of penny postage (_Fig._ 101) was surcharged "V.R.I. 1d." and the ordinary Transvaal stamps were locally overprinted "V.R.I." (_Fig._ 102). The values are d. green, 1d. carmine and green, 2d. brown, 2d. blue, 3d.

on 1d. carmine and green, 4d. sage green and deep green, 6d. lilac and green, 1s. ochre and green.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 101 102]

MAFEKING. During the memorable siege of Mafeking, a Bechua.n.a.land town but under the Cape postal administration, arrangements were made for a local post, and for occasional transmission of letters to Cape Colony, Natal, Rhodesia, and the United Kingdom. The postal arrangements of the town had only been transferred to the Cape Colony shortly before the siege, a fact which explains the variety of Bechua.n.a.land and Cape stamps available in the town during the siege. Payment of postage at the special rates chargeable for the service in the town and beyond was payable in the stamps of either "British Bechua.n.a.land,"

"Bechua.n.a.land Protectorate," or of the Cape overprinted "Mafeking--Besieged," and the new value (_Figs._ 103-114). As will be noticed from the ill.u.s.trations, the Bechua.n.a.land stamps were chiefly created by overprinting the name "BRITISH BECHUa.n.a.lAND" or "BECHUa.n.a.lAND PROTECTORATE" on English stamps.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114]

The foregoing stamps were chiefly used for letters sent by native runners who had to dodge through the enemy's lines and get either to Buluwayo in the north or Kimberley in the south. A special penny and a threepence stamp were prepared by a photographic process in the town, and these form the most interesting philatelic souvenirs of the South African War. The penny stamp, designed by Dr. W. A. Hayes, shows a portrait of Sergeant-Major Goodyear, of the Cadet Corps (_Fig._ 115), and there are two sizes of threepence stamp, designed by Captain Greener, the Chief Paymaster, showing a portrait of the gallant defender of Mafeking, General Baden Powell.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 115 116 117]

PIETERSBURG. This town in the north of the Transvaal provided an interesting set of type-set provisional stamps during the Boer occupation, from March until April 9, 1901, when the British troops occupied the town and district. The stamps, which were but roughly printed in the office of _De Zoutpansberg Wachter_ in the town, are inscribed "POSTZEGEL" at top "Z. AFR. REP." at each side, and "1901"

at foot. The value is expressed in figures and word in the rectangular opening of the frame of printer's rule (_Fig._ 118). The values issued were d. green, 1d. rose, 2d. orange, 4d. blue, 6d. green, and 1s.

yellow, and owing to the crudity of the printing, specialists find a very extensive range of minor technical varieties amongst this issue of six denominations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 118]

RUSTENBURG. After the relief of the British garrison by Baden Powell's force in June, 1900, the British hand-stamped South African Republic stamps with the _sans serif_ initials V.R. in violet, the values known being d. green, 1d. carmine and green, 2d. brown and green, 2d. blue and green, 3d. purple and green, 6d. lilac and green, 1s. ochre and green, 2s. 6d. dull violet and green (_Fig._ 119).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 119]

SCHWEIZER RENECKE. This Transvaal hamlet, in which a British force under Colonel Chamier was besieged from August 19, 1900, to January 9, 1901, overprinted some Cape of Good Hope d. and 1d. and Transvaal d., 1d., 2d., and 6d. stamps with a handstamp, reading "BESIEGED"

in violet, but this scarcely alters the postal status of the stamps (_Fig._ 120).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 120]

VOLKSRUST. Here also in June, 1900, a number of Boer stamps were overprinted "V.R.I." in serif letters. The stamps used for the overprinting were fiscal stamps of the type of _Fig._ 121, converted for postal use by the overprint "POSTZEGEL" (postage stamp) (_Fig._ 122). The values overprinted V.R.I. were 1d. pale blue, 6d. carmine, 1s. olive-bistre, 1s. 6d. brown, 2s. 6d. purple.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 121 122]

VRYBURG. In November, 1899, the Boers occupied this town in Griqualand West, and they surcharged some of our Cape Colony stamps in stock there with the initials of the South African Republic (Z.A.R.) and a new value (_Figs._ 124, 125, 129).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 124 125]

The town was retaken by the British in May, 1900, and certain stamps of the South African Republic left behind by the Boers were overprinted with an English inscription (_Figs._ 126-128).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 126 127 128 129]

WOLMARANSTAD. Occupied by the British in June, 1900, the available South African Republic stamps having the Dutch name overprinted "Cancelled" and the addition of the sans serif letters, separated by hyphens "V-R-I." in blue and red. The values are the d., 1d., 2d., 2d., 3d., 4d., 6d., and 1s. of the regular South African stamps, and the 1d. red commemorative stamp, in which, however, the word cancelled is in a square, script type (_Figs._ 130, 131).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 130 131]

UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA. It was fondly regarded as the settlement of British and Boer troubles in South Africa when the former belligerents in the Transvaal, Free State, Natal, and Cape Colony combined to form the Union of South Africa. The opening of the Union Parliament was commemorated in a special stamp (_Fig._ 132), the first to bear the portrait of H.M. King George V. after the decease of King Edward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 132 133]

This has since been followed with a complete issue of Georgian stamps for the whole of the Union (_Fig._ 133).

SOUTH AFRICA IN 1914. Already we have a first instalment of special marks used on letters of General Botha's loyal forces against the rebels, and against German raiders. The first (_Fig_. 134) is the handstamp struck in violet of an official regimental frank. The army base and field post offices have their postmarks of the pattern indicated in _Fig_. 135, and the censor label ill.u.s.trated (_Fig_.

136) is printed in violet, apparently in sheets which before use are endorsed with a black mark of concentric circles bearing an inscription of which only a portion shows on each label, and of which we have only seen an undecipherable part.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 134 135 136]

All three of these were used on a letter from a member of the South African Scottish regiment at Luderitzbucht in German South-West Africa.