Page:British India Adhesive Stamps Surcharged for Native States.djvu/13

2 the freight to India, and the actual cost of surcharging. No profit is made on the transaction.

These stamps are, therefore, seen to be more than mere "local" stamps, while they have not quite the character of "general issues." For they are available over an area vastly exceeding that of the State issuing them, and yet their use is restricted by the fact that they are not available for prepayment of postage on postal articles unless they are intended for delivery at a Post Office of the State itself or at a British Indian Post Office. They will, however, frank a letter addressed to any place between Chitral and Tuticorin, between Kelat and Kengtung; and have, therefore, an interest far above that which attaches to ordinary "local" stamps.

It has long been recognised that the stamps of the Straits Settlements surcharged for the use of the Native Protected States of Johor, Negri Sembilan, Perak, and Selangor are of the greatest interest. Yet those stamps have a far more limited circulation. Their chief interest lies in their fascinating variety of surcharges and the multitude of bona fide "errors." And yet these are the very qualities which are seized upon to blacken the character of the stamps which we are now discussing. Quite recently one of the leading London Philatelic Journals spoke of varieties of surcharge on these stamps as "accidentally made on purpose," while there are not wanting hints on all sides that "errors" are wilfully manufactured for the double purpose of pleasing collectors, and adding to revenue. Why these things should be said of Indian Native State stamps and not even whispered in connection with those of the Straits Settlements is one of the 'mysteries of creation," especially as, both in variety of surcharges and in "errors," the Indian stamps are so very much less wayward than the others.