Editor : James (Jim) Taylor 
2335 Paliswood Road SW, 
Calgary, AB
james-taylor@wave.home.com

President : David Allen 
2159 W 47th Avenue,
Vancouver BC
Canada V6M 2M6
Fax : 1-604-263-3141
dallen@axionet.com

Mr David Salovey 
Founder 
P.O. Box 464
New-York, N.Y. 10014-0464
USA

A Philatelic Cover - 1924.

One of the recent acquisitions in my collection is this beautiful philatelic cover showing the French metropolitan postage due stamps that were used prior to the introduction of specific postage due stamps for the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. There is no doubt that this is a cover specially prepared for a stamp collector. It is addressed to Administrative Officer in charge of the Naval Conscription Board. Postage due stamps would not normally have been used for postage. These would only have been used if the postage on the letter had been short paid. There is a "T" mark neatly placed on the front of the cover, to denote "postage due" and every stamp has been postmarked clearly on August 1, 1924 . On the reverse of the envelope is a blue mark some 40mms. wide inscribed '"Ile St.Pierre & Miquelon R.* F. " and in the centre are the words " Inscription Maritime ". Can anybody explain why there was a conscription office in the islands , given that there was an understanding that the islanders themselves were not subject to conscription. ?

Answers to the 1924 cover question

         Conscription ?

In presenting a cover on this site with an official cachet that I had interpreted as possibly referring to a conscription board at St. Pierre, the answer to this was given to me by Jean-Louis Rabottin when I visited St. Pierre last August. The cachet does not refer to conscription but was utilized by the office which registered those arriving from France and leaving at the end of the season, who had joined the cod fishing fleets. There was a register kept on the islands to record the movement of personnel. Thus there was no conscription board as I had suggested.  Clarifications and explanations are always welcomed along with any comments on statements that I might make, so please don't hesitate to contact me.

Philatelic articles by David Allen