THE FINANCES_ RAREST STAMP
OF CHINA
And Mr. Mackie's
Comments
11
(Special Air Mall Service)
Londer. March 24.
The Finance Minister of China
FOR SALE
Once Bought For Six Shillings
(Special Air Mail Service)
London, March 24. Instamp-collecting circles the to-day summoned press represen-chief topic of conversation is the tatives and told them of a com- forthcoming sale in London of the
from the munication
British unique 1 cent stamp" of British Government. According to one Gulana (1858). It comes under the the hammer for only the second time. report of his statements, British Government had asked Mr. In the 61 years that its existence Kung what he thought should be has been known to philatelists. The done to relleve Chinese financial last time it was sold, in Paris in difficulties, and had further pro 1922, it realized the equivalent in mised to join with other interest-francs of £7.300. the highest price ed. Governments in giving effec-ever paid for a single stamp. It is tive assistance to China. The interesting to compare this with observer is moved to inquire what the sum of 8s. paid to the original difficulties, finder, a Georgetown (Demerara) are these financial
a fellow collector who are the interested parties, schoolboy by and what could be the "effective about the year 1873, or even the assistance" of which Mr. Kung.£135 which is said to have "been Quoting the British Government pald by the late Baron von Ferrari speal?
וי
when it passed into his collection a short time afterwards.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1935.
HIGHER DUTY
ON IMPORTS
To Check Dumping From Abroad
(Special Air Mall Servion)
London, March '24.
PEACE IN THE
FAR EAST
Amur Frontier Situation
Special Air Mail Service),
London, March 24, I learn, that the Import Dutles The new prospect of a Russo- the Advisory Committee has recom- Japanese understanding mended to the Board of Trade that Far East ows something indirect- the ad valorem duty of 33 1-3 per ly to a growing recognition that cent. on imported steel goods the alternative in present cir- should be increased to 50 percumstances would clearly lead to
cent
An order will be made under the Import Duties Act at an early date, and will be brought before the House of Commons for approval. The report presented by the Ad- visory Committee will set out the reasons for recommending the change.
Ironi The British
Steel Federation applied to Sir George May's committee for an increase in the duty about three months ago. The application was accom- panied by a full statement of the federation's case. More recently the industry appealed for the committee's decision to be expedit-
and
The present owner is the widow of Mr. Arthur Hind, of Utica, N... and it is the only item excludeded, on the ground that, in the from the sale of his vast philatelic absence of any agreement with the collections, of which the buik have
something far more disastrous. than could have been foreseen three years ago.
It speaks well of Japanese statesmanship that the danger is being more realistically faced in Tokyo. Recognising the growing fear in Moscow, the Japanese spokesmen have taken the greatest recent care to explan that Japan has no aggressive intentions to- wards Russia, for the obvious rea- son that the now signed settle-
ment of the Chinese Eastern Rail- way controversy has removed all cause of friction. It is, moreover argued in Japanese quarters that there are several years of hard work ahead in Manchukuo, which postulates a period of peace both
The financial difficulties DI China are-this much, at any rate, one can secnos all of one sort, even though all are interrelated. As the chairman the Hons Kong and Shanghai Banking Cor- now been dispersed in New York International Cartel, control of the with Russia and with China' poration described in his speech and London. Most philatelists are recently, the Chinese Government agreed that the 1 cent value ex-furgent necessity.
of
home markel had become a matter
Imports of ateël from the Con- timent showed a marked rise dur- Complaint has been ing 1934. made of dumping of steel in Great Britain by Germany, France, and Belgium at prices lower than those
Bis much embarrassed by the
pressed on this stamp is a printer's American silver-purchasing pro error for 4 cents, and this view is Framme.. Mr. Mackie described borne out by the fact that no other how China had developed a large copy has since. come to light in Import surplus, imports in 1932 spite of every search. At present and 1933 being double Chinese the world's rarest stamp is insured exports, for which reason large for £10,000, but it is not antic-charged in their own countries. exports of silver were only to be pated that it will reach that figure expected in 1934 as the means of fin the auction room, balancing this disparity. The efforts and finally the success of the "silver group" of United
Jubilee Issues
employed.
Stabilising Prices
So
Conditions Transformed
The improved chance of settled peace in the Far East paradoxical- ly has not been Russia's new During the military strength past three years, as a precaution- ary measure in the unsettled con- ditions, the Russian army in the
Far Eastern area, and the Mari time Province has effected some- thing like a transformation of the conditions-before-obtaining
Three years ago half of the food be needed by that army had to transported from Siberia, Now the army is entirely self-suppor- ting as a result of a three-year plan of agricultural development carried out by an Army depart ment specially organised for "the purpose. Moreover, the carrying capacity of the Amur Railway to Vladivostok has been increased Ave times over as a pedient. The single track is being doubled. The work has already been finished nearly as far A Habarovsk, and will be completed to Vladivostok by the end of this
reserve
ex-
The British steel industry will welcome the decision of the import Dulles Advisory Committee. Des- As the date of the King's Süver pite the duty of 33 1-3 per cent
and the difference in exchange States politicians who caused the Jubilee approaches reports of im-rates, deliveries of foreign steel to Administration to purchase large pending issues of commemorative the home market increased from stocks of silver in the world mar-postage stamps continue to arrive 850,000 tons in 1933 to 1.400,000 ket gave further inducement for from every part of the Empire. The tons last year. That increase has allver export from China. In the Canadian Government announces a
been maintained this year. middle of October the Chinese series of six denominations, the 1 long as it continues many British Government, in Mr. Mackle's ex-cent green bearing the likeness of steel workers, must remain un pression. "threw discretion to the Princess Elizabeth and the 2 cents winds" and imposed restrictions brown that of the Duke of York.
The dumping of foreign steel on the export of slaver, because The 3 cents, also printed in brown, deprives British producers of the country was being emptied of portrays the King and Queen, while negotiating power with the formi- currency and forced into a "defta- the Prince of Wales is to be pordable International Steel Cartel. trayed on the 4 cents blue. The A higher duty will give them-a remaining stamps will bear a view bargaining power which may de- of Windsor Castle (10 cents green) and the royal yacht Britannia (15 steel admitted to the British mar-
amount of foreign year.
An entirely new railway to the ket, and will strengthen the post-north of the Amur Railway is tion of British steel on world being constructed, and is expected markets.
to be finished within two years. It will connect Lake Baikal with the Sea of Okhotsk The former circumstance of Russia's long lines of communication has now, in effect, been obliterated.
tion "crisis."
A Silver Loan?
The Hong Kong Bank consider ed these measures neither ad- visable nor successful; but it re-
cerits blue).
termine the
Industrialists regard the higher duty as a means of assisting the dumping at uneconomic prices in- steel industry of the world. While
stabilise prices anywhere, or to creased, it' was impossible to
concentrate upon development,
Between 1929 and 1934 the world
India's Silver Jubilee' issue is to cognises, the difficulties of the comprise stamps of 1, 1, 1, 21, and Government, and "s anxious to 8 annas and 1 rupee, but détalis co-operate in any measures which as to the subjects of the designs will have A beneficial effect." What these measures might be African issue numbers four-1d are lacking at present. The Bouth he did not state, but a silver loan 2d., 3d, and 6d-uniformly print- to the Government, against some ed in a large traverse design, twice sort of an undertaking by it to the size of an ordinary postage secure & duction of the import stamp with the King's head in the excess (which the speaker quoted centre displayed against a sun-consumption of steel fell from thought should not be difficult), rayed background and supported 118,000,000 to 80,000,000 tons. The is presumably hinted at. Whether upon either side by springboks, higher duty will assist in the re- the United States silver-buying while South African fruits occupy policy would have to be stopped the upper spandrels. The inscrip in order to make such a recon- tions are in both English and struction possible Mr. Mackie did Afrikaans. A view of the Victoria not state. This was one of those Falls of the Zambezi River with matters about which he "hesitated springboks in the foreground is to to make any forecast."
be shown on the Jubilee stamps of Southern Rhodesia, consisting of the same four values.
iri
Good Roads Made The local conditions bave likewise been transformed. Good roads have been constructed in adequate numbers, fron and con- crete fortifications, gas-proof and
been the bomb-proof, have
built, Vladivostok has been fortified. Munition. factories, aeroplane factories, shipyards have been con- structed. Coal is plantiful. oli from Bakhalin has been made readily available.
gulation of competition in export trade and the allocation of markets to assure economic prices.
TWO YEARS OF TRAINING
(Special Air Mall Service)
Wholly different from, though no doubt at some points touching, "these economic difficulties are the
New Continental Stamps 41mculties, upon which Mr. Mackie
Ever alive to the power of the dwelt, which the Chinese Govern- ment is experiencing the subduing postage stamp for purposes of poli- For All Frenchmen rebellion various provinces, tical propaganda, the German ad- From his brief allusion to the thorities did not neglect the oppor- Escapades of Red armies" in 'tunity afforded by the recent "Day Klans, Fukten, and Szechuan of Remembrance for the Dead" and the military commitments and the introduced two special stamps in- financial requirements set up by acribed "Heldengedenktag · 1935,” them can be understood to be very showing the steel-helmeted head of considerable. Offers of loans to a typical German soldier with the the Chinese Government at Nan- suggestion of a battlefield and wire king for this purpose are of a entanglements in the background rather diferent order. They can after the design of Herr Mjolnir. only be considered as part of a The pig, stamp is printed in dark big political programme of which, green and the 12pfg, in a deep lake on the British side, solicitude for colour. the security, of the British capital already invested in China (about £40,000,000 in gold values) would be one element.
Further Securities.
London, March 24. The French Government propose to increase the compulsory period of service with the army..
The increases were announced Parliament this afternoon as....
The whole coastline has been put into a state of defence. There is already available a submarinė fleet and an air force which is re- garded as adequate for the de- fence of the province. Tokyo is only 600 miles from Vladivostok, and could be reached in a few hours by an air force.
The defensive measures that have been taken in Russia's Far Eastern province, and its trans- formation into a self-supporting economic units have had the in- incidental effect of emphasising the
unpleasant possiblities of a ser lous and long-drawn-out, 'conflict in the Far East.
From a year to 18 months for recruits called up in April 1935, and from a year to two years for those called up in October 1935 and during 1836, 1937, 1938, and 1939.
The Government also announced that a Bill would be tabled to the Chamber providing for:
The eighty-fith birthday of Dr. Masaryk was celebrated in Czecho- Slovakia on March 5 by an issue of four commemorative stamps bear- ing his portrait and autograph, the values 50 haleru and i krune re- In the speech already quoted peneuting him in what appears to Mr. Mackle suggested that the be a yachtsman's cap and the 2 Chinese Government is regularly, and 8 krung, in enlarged format of accumulating debt at an annual in hunting Costume. Both designs
Include the dates 1850-1935." rate of about £13,000,000. The Customs administration is usually called upon to provide security.
This administration, Mr. Mackle ment to see the Nanking Govern sald, had for twenty years exer- ment thoroughly ~ through its cised custodianship of the Chinese difficulties.
A progresive reduction of the age
And increase of the enlistment conscription from 21 to 20; and
and Te enlistment of professional soldiers,
It was emphasised that these measures do not increase the nor mar strength, 230,000 men, of the French Army, but were designed to all the gap due to the war years which would otherwise reduce the French Army ( 118,000 in 1940,
Government loans without ever The observer of these matters falling in its duty to bondholders, from afar can only echo Mr. If the Chinese Government were Mackie in regarding the outlook Demands For Equality to be enabled once again to bors as inscrutable. But it is a little Frow in the world capital markets, less inscrutable when the econo- further Customs security would mic dimculties and the political certainly have to be provided dimculties of Nanking are clearly But no such further investment of distinguished. A loan" of £20,000, British capital is conceivable with 000 which might be effective to out the backing of the British overcome currency inculties. Government, which," it im would surely not be much use in portant, should only be given to the long run for the larger pur implement an international agree- pose
--
To that extent Russia's military preparations have come to the help of common sense on all sides and have led to a general appreciation of the danger of inflaming pas sions. It does appear to be the ease that the chances of a RusSO- Japanese understanding are great- er to-day than they have been for many months
On the question of Germany's military equipment, the Matin" says that her supplies are almost unlimited and her motorcars and tanks would be sufficent to tran
port 100,000 mens
The German army, it is added has been highly mechanised and if a sudden attack were launched scross the frontier at dawn it could be in Paris before the eve This equ
Among the Press comments to day, the “Matin," which only a few months ago decided in favour of a: France-German
des tanko ana declares" "Ever with two ára travel over.
Other pa
equality, and not
be demanding armist aco
situation In
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