Stamp Story—No. 75 Stuart King's Place In Colonial History

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29844, 9 June 1962, Page 8

Stamp Story—No. 75 Stuart King's Place In Colonial History

(By

KEN ANTHONY]

TJING CHARLES I of England has gone down in history as the king who lost his head—executed by order of his Parliament. So there is something ironic in the fact that one of the few portraits of him to appear on stamps should celebrate a Parliamentary, anniversary! Colonial self-government is

nowadays regarded as a modern development. In fact it goes back more than three centuries —as this stamp proves. This is one of a set of five issued in June, 1939, to mark the 300th anniversary of the General Assembly of Barbados. And the formation of this colonial parliament was authorised by Charles I. Another early legislature was the House of Assembly in Jamaica, whose charter was granted by Charles II in 1664. This, too. has been featured on a stamp—a 2d value issued in 1945 to mark a new constitution. In the days before steamships. these West Indian islands were so remote from the mother country, and communication was so slow and infrequent, that direct control from London presented great practical diffi-

■ culties. As a result, selfgovernment developed from an early date. The islanders, however, weren’t always anxious to ■ control their own affairs. One of the reasons why the West Indian colonies did not . have their own stamps, in ! some cases for as much as ;20 years after the Penny

Black had appeared in Britain, was that the colonial authorities were reluctant to take over their own post offices. They were wary of the expense that might be entailed.

So, until they were eventually persuaded to take control, their post offices were regarded as branches of the G P.O. in London. And British stamps were used for a short time before the islands had their own.