OUR NATIONAL FLAGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 205, 29 August 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

OUR NATIONAL FLAGS.

The Union Jack And Royal Standard.

HERALDRY OF OUR FLAGS AND ENSIGNS.

(By KAPITI.)

All In a moment through the gloom were seen Ten thousand banners rise Into the air, With orient colours -waving. —Milton. rthis article I shall endeavour to trace very briefly the history of our national flags—their uses and abuses. A glance at any standard dictionary will disclose that "flag" is defined as "a cloth, usually bearing emblems or figures, borne on a staff, and employed to distinguish one party or nationality from another," and to those who are at all interested in etymology will also be disclosed the fact that, strange' to say, no trace of^ the word is to be found in Anglo-Saxon, but that the Dutch word is vlag, Swedish flagg, Danish flag, and German flagge—a remarkable series of similarities.

Our national flags are sacred symbols of all that we as a race stand for; all that we as a raca have achieved or hope still to achieve. Our love of the flag is no new emotion; no growth of a few generations: it is our inheritance passed on to all from before the early dawn of history.

From earliest times the different tribal members found it necessary to use some form of badge or sign to distinguish one family from another, one tribe from another and so on, until, as the means of transport were improved, it became not only desirable but necessary to distinguish by some form of insignia one nationality from another. Thus the birth of the flags of all nations.

The earliest form of insignia recorded .■were images or badges made of wood or metal and carried on the top of a pole. The ancient Greeks for instance carried a symbol of one of their eacred dieties —the owl or the bull. The Persians, we are told, used the sun or the eagle. But the flag as we know it did not seem to I

inake its appearance until the Romans. liivy mentions the vexillum or cavalry standard, which was obviously the first flag- , From the earliest known records and so on through, the ages national flags have been held not only in national pride, but in strict religious veneration. The earliest flags of battle were hung, when not in use, in the - teinples. -and 'churches of the chief cities and. "this custom .is still in vogue to-day. To-day, too, before any new colours are presented to a regiment they are first ■'blessed and consecrated at a special religious service. Queen Elizabeth ordered the Spanish ensigns captured at Armada to be hung in St. haul's* She referred to them as "Psalms of Praise. '

Avoid Hoisting "Jack" Upside Down.

We as Britons aTe not a demonstrative 1-ace, but -w;© are all proud of our national flaigs. It behoves us, therefore, to take a little more interest in the subject of the correct flying of our various flags. So much has been written, so much has been said, by people who don't really know anything about the matter, that most of us are perplexed rather than ignorant about its various aspects. Even people who should, know better will think nothing of flying the Royal Standard when they would hesitate, because of something they had heard, about the hoisting of the Union Jack. For public guidance it has been announced, by no less a person than the Home Secretary, in the House of Commons,! as late as June, 1933: "The Union flag is. the national flag and may properly ~be flown by any British subject on land."

This leaves the matter beyond doubt, but we must still be careful that we do not fly it upside down, as is so often done. It is not necessary to refer to the composition of our national flag: we "were all taught that at school; but although all of. us know that after the

Act of Union in 1801 it was composed of the three crosses of St. George, 'St. Andrew and St. Patrick, not many know that it is quite easy to fly it upside down.

Let us look at a picture of the Union Jack. We should notice a peculiar feature. The red bars of the cross of St. Patrick, which runs from corner to corner and is what is known as a saltire, are neither in the middle of the white cross of St. Andrew nor are they in line. Why? The reason is mainly due to one of the many rules of heraldry. When two saltires are placed on the same shield or flag they must be of the same width and such the crosses of St. Patrick and St. Andrew should be. One thus could not be placed over the other without obliterating it, and if the red were 011 top it would show as being on a blue field instead of a white one. It was to avoid this difficulty that the diagonals were counterchanged, that is, so arranged that in one half of. the flag they were of the same colour as in the other, but reversed, the red taking the place of the white and the white that of the red. Thus if the flag is to be flown correctly the larger white strip of the St. Andrew cross must be in what /is known as the canton of the flag. The canton is the top left-hand corner and is the most coveted portion of a flag. This may appear a matter of very line distinction to the man in the street, but when it is explained that if a flag.is flown .upside ; dpwn it means a signal of distress, the j importance of the rule is patent.

Our Five National Ensigns.

Now let us look at the various national ensigns. There are five important ones. The red, blue and white are the most common. The red and blue ha.ve been already dealt with in a previous -article, and the famous White Ensign of our Navy is so well known thai we may pass it by, except to say that, '' apart from the vessels of the Royal Navy and those of the Royal Yacht Squadron, no other ship is allowed, under any circumstances, to fly it. The remaining two ensigns are of fairly recent date and seldom seen in New

; Zealand. The Royal Air Force Ensign is ,a blue'one (Royal Air Force blue), ; and has the usual Union Flag in the canton, but on the fly (that part of the ■ flag that waves in the wind) is the Royal Air Force symbol of a red, white and blue target. Briefly, this flag may be described as the "White Ensign of the air," and it 3 use is confined to His Majesty's aircraft. The other flag, the Civil Air Ensign, has been in use only since 1931. It is the same as the Royal Air Force Ensign without the target, and with the addition of a large dark blue cross with a thin white border. This cross is in a similar position to the red of St. George's cross in the White Ensign. The flag may be used by any aircraft registered in the United Kingdom, or by aerodiomes registered under the Air Navigation Act. It may be compared with the Red Ensign of the Mercantile Marine. How Australian arid New Zealand Flags Differ. It is important that we New Zealariders should know the difference between our own national flag and that of Australia. Few people could tell us the exact difference. Our Blue Ensign has four five-point red stars, edged with white, in the form of a cross, on the fly. The red is the same except the stars are white. The Australian Ensign is quite different. The blue lias'four seven-point white stars and one five-point smaller star in the form of a cross on the fly* and one much larger seven-point white star under the Union Flag in the canton. The red is the same. These, then, are the most -common national flags that we see. Enough has been written to show us that our flags, which are steeped in so much tradition," and are 'such sacred j symbols of our place in the world to-day, j aro worthy of a little more respect and : deference than at present we are wont 1 to..give them. In this age of rush and j radio we are inclined to overlook the | • simpler beauties of life and are liable to forget so much of the wonderful | - traditions attached to our national flags.. Let us rectify this fault before it is too | late. >

s The Sovereign's Personal Banner. This then is one of the most common errors in tlie flying of our national flag. The 'other is the flying of the Royal Standard. Incidentally, tie names Royal 1 Standard and Union Jack are both • wrongly used. The Royal Standard is really. the Royal Banner —it bears the ' Royal Arms. The correct name for the Union Jack is the Union Flag. The ■ reason why the word "Jack" came into , use was because, in the first place, the Union Flag was flown only at the "jack staff" at the bows of a boat. However, both names have now become so firmly established that it will never be possible to change them —a pity. Now the Royal Standard is the Sovereign's own personal banner and may be used when and where and only when and where he is preesnt or when any member of the Royal Family is present as his representative. It must on no account be used for street decoration. There is no exception.

We all are familiar with the appearance of the Royal Standard, which is the most picturesque flag in the world and, from an heraldic point of view, the most interesting. The three golden lions (on a red field) in the canton represent England; the famous red lion rampant (against a yellow field) represents Scotland and the golden harp (against a blue field) represents Ireland. The remaining space is allocated again to England and contains a replica of the arms in the canton. The double red border round the lion rampant is known in heraldry as "a double tressurse flory counterflory." It has often been suggested that the extra square used by England should contain some emblem symbolic of the British colonies and it seems a very good idea. It would not be an easy matter to design such an insignia, but it surely is not beyond the scope of our heraldic experts. The fact that England has two squares to the others one has always been a sore point with Ireland and- Scotland, and as late as 1853 there was. a very heated discussion on the point.