Since the outbreak of the present war the German armies have no doubt provided a great deal of new material for philatelic study, and a recent number of a stamp journal published in the Fatherland tells us that collectors there are zealously
following the development of the German Field Post Offices, adding the following information:
There is a lot of interesting material already, not only with regard to the printed forms used in the Field Mail Service, but also with regard to the Field Post cancellations, Troop Letter cancellations, and Censor postmarks. The correspondence coming from the garrisons very rarely bear a Field Post cancellation, and it is generally cancelled with ordinary town postmarks like the mails of troops still at home. Besides this, there is, occasionally, a censor Troop cancellation; to the latter also belong the Lazarett cancellation (hospital service), of which we have seen several that were interesting. Lately, a large number of pieces of mail have been coming from troops in the enemies' country, without postal cancellations—owing to strategic reasons—which is much to be regretted from the view-point of the collector. In the near future, the working out of German Field Post cancellations of the war of 1914 will be an exceptionally thankful philatelic report. We will only mention the news that France had issued several occupation stamps which were said to have been used during the occupation of Muelhausen. A collector in Muelhausen wrote to us about this mythological issue of stamps, that the French, during both occupations, have neither used their own stamps, nor have they organised any kind of postal service.[6]
Belgium, as already noted in Chapter V., has been provided with stamps of the Germania type overprinted "Belgien" and the value in centimes ([Fig. 209]). These have, no doubt, been issued in enormous quantities with the hope of raking in shekels not only from the Belgians and from German stamp collectors, but also from collectors and curiosity hunters in neutral countries. Although there are plenty to be had in Switzerland, Holland, and other neutral countries at about sixpence the set of four, it is extraordinary to relate that in one or two isolated cases British dealers have obtained and sold supplies at very fancy prices. As in the case of the similar issue so called "Alsace and Lorraine" of 1870-1871, there will be plenty to go round, and it will be time enough when the Huns have ceased from troubling us to gather these relics into our albums as memorials of Germany's trail through the beautiful towns of Belgium. In any case it is inadvisable to buy any unused stamps originating in an enemy country since the outbreak of the war, as they represent a clear contribution to the enemy's Treasury.
[6] Incidentally the German journal, Berliner Briefmarken-Zeitung, in a very moderate article on the war's effect on the stamp trade, states that German collectors are buying up Belgian, Serbian, and Montenegrin stamps, evidently in the "opinion that these countries will become non-existent."
237 238 239
Very few postmarks of the present war have so far reached us from Germany, but Fig. 237 is a type of the Field Post Office date mark. Figs. 238, 239 are Censor marks, and the next (Fig. 240) is the cover of a letter from a prisoner of war interned at Kissingen.
