Evening star., 1946-01-06
stamps
By James Waldo Fawcetf.

By James Waldo Fawcen.
Clarence Scroggs of the Asheville,
N. c., Citizen-Times has brought to
the attention of cover collectors in
general subject of prime i'm
portance which has been develop
| ing day by day since long before
Pearl Harbor.
In letter to the philatelic con-
sultant of the Library of Congress,
he discusses military and naval
covers in part as follows:
II want to ask you two questions,
but before I do, it will be necessary
to give you the background for
! them.
Doubtless you know that the
public relations units of the Army
performed one of the real monu-
mental jobs in keeping the home
! folks informed about servicemen.
Being newspaper man and in
close touch with this phase Of war
activity, I decided early in the war
to try to make a collection for his
toric purposes.
"The public relations units func-
toned all over the globe and en-
braced every branch of the serV-
ice.
up to this date, have collected
1000 official War Department en-
velopes from everywhere. AS far as
I can tell, there are 1901 separate
and distinct items, including 440
from the various war fronts; rs
from North Carolina camps and
agencies; SIS from training camps,
and 271 from various war agencies.
Among the authentic gems of this
accumulation are homemade en-
velopes from the Flying Tigers in
China; covers from the Ledo road
prepared under fire; envelopes from
beachhead in Southern France;
rice paper covers from India and
China; envelopes and wrappers from
practically every isle of the Pacific;
covers from fighting fronts all over
the world many envelopes over
printed because of paper shortages;
covers from all of the air force con-
tingents, including the Goth and
21st; envelope relating to the NOV
ing back to Washington of art
treasures stored at Biltmore House;
envelopes which contained releases
on the atomic bomb; cover from
United States university center in
Florence, Italy; envelopes of various
high Government agencies, Allied
Commission in Berlin, etc.
From about three months before
the war began until its close and
for about three months after, I
saved the actual public relations
news stories from all war fronts in
Europe and in the Pacific.
Il put this collection together as
a cross section of the work of public
relations during the war.
Now for my two questions: First,
Is there precedent for the Govern
ment press agenting war activities
from training camps and war
fronts? Second, Do you think this
collection has any philatelic value?
of course, the envelopes bear no
stamps. They are official covers and
were transmitted free. -
In answer to Mr.. Scroggs' in
quiries: There were precedents for
press agenting war activities" even
in very ancient times. Herodotus,
the father of history, was war COR
respondent and, in sense, a propa-
gandist.
Such collection of war covers
obviously is OF interest 1t therefore
may be presumed to have a value.
What is wanted is a catalogue of
the different types of covers used in
Army and Navy camps and stations.
A research worker and editor of the
genius Of Deli Norona of Mounds
vile, w. Va, is needed to bring order
out OF existing chaos Mr.. Scroggs'
accumulation undoubtedly is conse-
quential, yet it is merely fragment
War covers. official and unofficial.
Tor World War II run into tens of
thousands Of varieties. The time to
begin to study them is now.
Readers who have data to contrib
ute are invited to communicate with
Mrs. Edwin B. Martin, assistant to
the philatelic consultant, Study
Room 20l, Library of Congress An
mex, Washington, D. c.
Lynne Crider, publicity repre-
sentative for the executors of his
phllatelic estate, says: One of the
late Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
great regrets was that none of his
children were interested in stamn
collecting. AS each Of his children
reached school age, he tried to instill
IN them an interest in his favorite
hobby"
Those portions of the Presidents
personal collection-as distinct from
the official part which is at HYDE
Park-to be sold at auction at the
Parke Bernet Galleries in New York
on February and 5 will be ex-
hlblted to the public there on Janu-
ary 81.
Mr. Crider in supplementary
release gives it as his opinion that:
The appraisal of Mr.. Roosevelt's
Co4lectlon revealed that he never
threw away stamp, no matter how
badly damaged or how many dupli-
Gates he had"
More than 1000 stamps issued
during World War II in Europe and
the Philippines by Germany, italy.
Japan and AXis-controlled govern
mentS will be listed and numbered
IN 60-page supplement to SCOTS
Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue,
edited by Hugh and Theresa M.
Clark and published by the Scott
Publications, Inc, New York, soon
to appear. The booklet will sell at
cost of production, soc a copy.
The Collectors Club of Washing
ton will meet at the Pythian
Temple, 1912 Ninth street NV.
Tuesday evening at 8; and the
Washington Philatelic Society will
have an auction and bourse of for
eign and domestic stamps and COW
ers at the Lee Sheraton Hotel, Fiji
teenth and L streets NV, We'd
yoocAou 81