STAMP STORIES

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21244, 16 August 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

STAMP STORIES

(By R. J. G. Collinsi

On two occasions the assistance that the British have given to Greece has been recognised by ths issue of special postage stamps. Lord Byron, the great poet who gave hia life for the sake of the independence of Greece, was honoured in two stamps issued in 1924. Then

in 1927 the portrait appeared of Sir Edward Codrington, a British Admiral. An interesting mistake was made when the stamp with Codrington's portrait first appeared, the inscription was "Sir Codrjngt&Bf' -'later this was corrected.

Another stamp in the set of 1927 shows the battle of Navarino. In 1827 the British, French and Russians united for the protection of Greece and a victory was won as a result of a naval battle fought near the sea port of Navarino. Sir Edward Codrington who was in command of the allied fleet signally defeated the Turkish and Egyptian fleets, the end coming when the Turkish flag-ship was blown up. On the stamp referred to this ending to the battle is displayed, the British flag-ship being shown as well as the burning Turkish flag-ship. A point worth noticing in connexion with this battle is that the British flag-ship was built not in England, but in India. For generations a family of Indian Parsees maintained a ship-building yards at Bombay, and so excellent was the work of this family that several British battleships of the Victoria type were built in India. A descendant of this family, Dr. A. S. Wadia, who for some time was a professor of English at the Madras University, visited New Zealand a few years ago and wrote a book dealing with New Zealand and Australia, entitled "Under the Southern Cross."