BRITISH LETTERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 8, 25 September 1942, Page 5

BRITISH LETTERS

WITH POLISH STAMPS

Letters are being received, in the Empire from Britain bearing Polish postage stamps. They are the correspondence of Polish soldiers, sailors and airmen stationed in Britain, who, by a special arrangement with tiie British Government, arc sending their mail by Polish ships. As these ships themselves ,are regarded as Polish territory, letters posted on board may also be franked with Polish stamps. lo mark this novel departure in postal convention the Polish " Ministry of Finance have ordered more than a million stamps of the first Polislijjssue to be printed in Britain. Of the eight denominations, the 5 groszy stamp shows the battered ruins of the United States Embassy in Warsaw, and the 10 groszy tliie facade of the building of the Warsaw Ministry of Finance. The columns remain, but the building itself is now a heap of rubble. The 25 groszy stamp portrays the demolition by the Germans of the monument of the famous poet Mk> kiewicz in Cracow. There is a beautiful 55 groszy stamp showing Castle Square in Warsaw framed by the "lighest class of the Virtuti Military Cross, equivalent to the British Victoria Cross, which was awarded to the City of Warsaw for its heroic resistance to the enemy. The four higher denominations show the present Avar effort of the Polish Forces. On the 75 groszy Polish Infantry is represented by a picture of a gun post. The 80 groszy portrays mechanised forces ■ —a. medium-sized tank on the move. Polish Aviation is depicted on the I zloty—a Wellington and Hurricane with British and Polish markings.

Perhaps the most interesting sulijcet is shown on tiie highest denominations 1 zloty 50 groszy. There the Polish Navy is represented by a picture of the famous submarine "Orzcl," which escaped from the Baltic Sea without navigating instruments or maps, and later with other units of the Polish Navy fought gallantly against the common enemy.