Page 60 - Delcampe Collections classiques EN-006

Stamps

Mutsuhito ascended the throne at
the age of 14, on 30 January 1867,
and 1904 was the 37th year of his
reign. This letter is from the 1st
Army in Manchuria. It is stamped
“1st Army Field Post Office”.
The second is an illustrated post-
card used as a campaign document
on the Russian side. It was written
at Shungchenfu (now Shuangchen),
a town 65 km south of Kharbin
(now Harbin), on 5. X.1905. On
the purple military stamp, written
in Cyrillic we find: “2j Pota Boct-
Cib. Battalion Boenno-Telegrie’ or
“2nd Company of the East Siberian
Telegraph Battalion”. The postcard
was sent via the main office of the
military postal service (Glavnaya
Polev. Pocht. Kont.) located in Khar-
bin (see round black stamp on the
left) dated 10.X.1905. The third
black stamp in the centre is that
confirming its arrival in St. Peters-
burg on 7.XI.1905.
This whole story brings us back to
other sad current situations, with
which we can draw many parallels
some 120 years later...
Greek historian Thucydides said that
history perpetually repeats itself.
Over and over again, man repeats
the same mistakes, never in quite
the same way, given the changing
environment, but always making the
same mistakes because “he cannot
see”.

60 Delcampe Magazine