VII.

AMERICAN WARS.--United States--Civil War--Confederate
Stamps--Hispano-American War--Vera Cruz--Canada--Mexican
Revolution--South and Central America. Page 91.

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. Page 100

CHAPTER IX.

THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1915. Check List of New War Stamps.
Page 113.

[Illustration: Russia's New War Stamps. (_Figs. 189-192. See
Chapter V._)]

THE POSTAGE STAMP IN WAR.

CHAPTER I.

THE POSTAGE STAMP WITH THE FLAG.--British Posts in the
Crimea--The Abolition of the Capitulations--The British Fleet
in the Baltic--Abyssinian Expedition--The First Army Postal
Corps--Egypt--Dongola Expedition--South Africa--The
British Army Post in France, 1914--How to Address Soldier's
Letters--The Postmarks from France--The Navy's Postmarks.

The Postage Stamp follows the Flag. The same small talisman which
passes our letters across the seven seas to friends the world over
maintains the lines of personal communication with our soldiers and
sailors in time of war. Wherever the British Tommy goes he must have
his letters from home; like the lines of communication, which are the
life-line of the army, postal communication is the chief support of
the courage and spirit of the individual soldier. His folk at home
send him new vigour with every letter that tells of the persons,
places and things that are nearest and most cherished in his memory.

In these days letter-sending and letter-getting are so common-place
that few give any thought to the great organisation by which thousands
of millions of postal packets are posted and delivered in this country
every year. And now that most of us have friends at the Front, in
France, in Belgium, or on the high seas, we are perhaps inclined to
take it all just as a matter of course that letters pass and repass
much in the ordinary humdrum way. This is plain to the conductors of
our postal services when during war time they get numerous complaints
from individuals of delay or even non-delivery, or any one of a number
of other minor inconveniences which must often be