(Army), and those for the sister service ARMADA (Navy).

CHAPTER VIII.

Miscellaneous Wars and Commemorations.--Patriotic Empire
Stamps--Victoria--New Zealand--Barbados' Nelson Stamp--A
Dutch Naval Commemoration--Balkan Wars--Greece--Albania--
Epirus--Bulgaria--Roumania--Italy--Portugal--Spain--Mysterious
Melillas--China.

[Illustration: 324 325]

Australasia has not had much occasion for war stamps, but it is worthy
of note that at the time of the South African War Victoria issued two
postage stamps of patriotic designs, obtained in public competition.
The Victoria Cross design (_Fig._ 324) gained the prize for the penny
stamps and the prize for the twopence stamps was awarded for the other
design (_Fig._ 325) showing a picket on foot and armed scouts scanning
the horizon of the open veldt in the Transvaal, whilst in the distance
are the faint outlines of the hills which the British have had to
scale. The central figures in the latter design are in the uniform
of the Victorian contingent. These stamps sold at 1s. and 2s. each
although they only prepaid 1d. and 2d. postage respectively, the
balance going to the Patriotic Fund.

[Illustration: 326]

In connection with the same campaign New Zealand issued in 1901 a
stamp printed in a khaki colour to commemorate the sending of a New
Zealand contingent to the war. The stamp (_Fig._ 326), designed by Mr.
J. Nairn of Wellington and engraved in New York, pictures the part of
the contingent sent as New Zealand's response to "the Empire's call."

Barbados marked the centenary of the battle of Trafalgar by an issue
of stamps depicting the "first monument erected to Nelson's memory,
1813" (_Fig._ 327). The monument is in the capital of the Colony,
Bridgetown, but its claim to be the first erected to Nelson's memory
is contested.

Another naval hero, Michael A. de Ruyter, Admiral-in-Chief of the
Dutch Fleet, is commemorated on a set of stamps of Holland issued in
1907 for the ter-centenary of his birth. This design, in addition to a
portrait of the Admiral, depicts a battle at sea (_Fig._ 328).

[Illustration: 327 328 329]

The recent Balkan Wars (1912-13) would require a volume to describe in
detail the philatelic results. Two Greek stamp designs commemorate the
victories of the troops allied against Turkey. One shows the cross
of Constantine over the Acropolis and city of Athens and the Bay of
Salamis; the other depicts the eagle of Zeus