THE HISTORY OF THE UNION JACK.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1920, Page 4

THE HISTORY OF THE UNION JACK.

Wjhat is there in a piece of bunting fluttering in the wind to rouse the deepest and most exalted, the purest and most heroic sentiments in the breast of civilised man? Only that it is the symbol of family, tribal, or national life handed down from generation sacred for its memories, revered for its history, cherished for its significance as a protection to the weak or defenceless and the pride of race, sanctified by the blood of heroes.

DEVELOPMENT OF UNION JACK. The Union Jack has a complicated history because it has been evolved into its present form out of national development covering over 800 years. Its first design was the cross of St George; its last, adopted 118 years ago, has the Crosses of St Andrew and St Patrick combined with it. It is the flag of Great Britain and her overseas dominions and colonies. It is the flag of each individual as the Royal Standi ard is the flag of the King. Its history shows the development of England from an insular community dependent on its warriors for protection, into one of the greatest sea powers the world lias ever known. A nation’s emblem lias generally been chosen for some religious incident in its history, and the aid of religion has as a rule, been sought to sanctify national flags. St George, the patron saint of England, is credited with being the inspiration of England’s first national flag through an incident of the Crusades. The story goes that at the Siege of Antioch when the Crusaders were being hard pressed by the Saracens, and were giving way in despair of superior numbers in the enemy, they wero suddenly hear tented by seeing an “infinite number of Heavenly Soldiers all in white descended from the Mount-

ains, the standard-bearer and lenders from St George, St Maurice and St Demetrius,” who turned the tide of war and “left slain 100,000 horse, besides foot innumerable.” This miracu-

lous victory led to the recovery of Jerusalem, and in gratitude for the heavenly aid, the Crusaders of England, Portugal and Aragon adopted St George as their patron saint.

With the characteristic persistence of the Anglo-Saxon race, “St George and Merrie England” has been the nation’s slogan down the ages since the 11th century, in spite of the mystery that surrounds the life of this saint who shares his natal day, April 23rd, with Shakespeare of immortal memory. He is said (1) to have been a commission merchant born in Cilicia, who amassed much wealth by selling bacon and com to the army on distinctly profiteering terms, then became a bishop and was massacred at Alexandria under Julian,

A.D. 361; (2) lie is said to have been an earlier saint of the Eastern Church who was a- soldier and senator under Diocletian, and beheaded by Lydda; April 23, A.D. 303; (3) lie is said to be of English parentage, born at Coventry and with no apparent history. But from the time of the Siege of Antioch

the Red Cross of St. George on a white field was the fighting emblem of England (worn by every soldier in the Crusades) till the union .with Scotland in 1603 made it necessary to combine with it the white Cross of St Andrew on a blue field, as St Andrew was Scotland’s patron saint. Fortunately for heraldry this cross is in the form of a saltire—an Xon its side- and so does not dotract from symmetry of the design. This saltire cross is said to be the form desired by St Andrew on his crucifixion, as

he considered it too great an honour to be nailed to the cross as was his Lord. St Andrew’s martyrdom took place Nov. 30, A.D. 69 at Patras, and his remains were carefully preserved there till 370,

when Regulus, a Greek monk, was warned in a dream that the Emperor Constantine was going to remove them to Constantinople, and that he must at once visit the shrine . and take away overseas to the west an arm bone, three fingers of the right hand and a tooth. Regulus, much troubled, secured these relics, and set forth with some half dozen companions on a voyage to the west, which ended in a wreck on an'unknown shore, in whose gloomy forests natives discovei’ed them, and gave them land to build a church to the glory of God, and the enshrining of the relics.

This dour land proved to be “Caledonis stern and wild,” and the tiny settlement the nucleus of the now busy town of St Andrew for centuries the seat of a bishopric, and always the headquarters of the national game of golf. There is no known reason why St 'Andrew was chosen to he the patron saint of Scotland, except that he just lias been, since 740 A.D. COMBINATION OF THE TWO FLAGS The combining of the two flags signifying the union of the two kingdoms i

under the Stuarts, by which England and Scotland became known as Great Britain, was not accomplished without Scottish protest voiced at intervals for a hundred years, because the cross of St George was placed in front of that

of St Andrew. Rut as heraldry knows of no way to make two devices on a flag of equal value, no better solution could he found, while naval victories came thick and fast under the “red, white and blue,” up to the time, the political union of Ireland with Great Britain, 1801, entailed another change in the device, but not the colour of the national flag. IRELAND REPRESENTED ON THE FLAG. Since the conquest of Ireland, she had been represented on the royal stand-

ard first by three golden crowns, and later by a golden harp on a blue ground, the correct standard of that country. But the harp on two croses seemed quite out of place, and the cross of St Patrick was substituted because it was the emblem of Ireland’s religious patron, though in defiance of all tradition and custom, as it is not found .among tho emblems of saints. Its adoption was merely a concession to the'popular delusion which made a saint of a Scotchman born at Dumbarton in 373, who was never martyred, as he died peacefully in his bed at the ago of 00, therefore he could not be canonised as a martyred, saint, and even' tho form of the cross —a rod saltire on a white field —was not ecclesiastic, but was tho heraldic device of tho Norman family of Geraldines, one of whom Maurice Fitzgerald, grandson of Rhys, tho Great King of South Wales, visited Dcrmod King of Loinstor, in 11.6&, and by means unknown his banner was later palmed iff on the people of Ireland as distinctive of their patron St Patrick. So If

much for the wish which is father to the thought. ARRANGEMENT OF THE CROSSES. The three crosses could not be com-

bined on one flag without adjustments, for two of them were of the same sizo and diagonal, and heraldry does not permit of one colour being placed over another, but must have a narrow border or fimbriation of white to separate colour from colour, yet the saltires must be of the same width. There was only one way out of the difficulty, and that Vvas to counterchange of the diagonals by which the white cross of St Andrew was given the place of honour

next the staff, as was due to Scotland’s position in the realm, yet the red cross of St Patrick was given equal value by placing it above the white cross in the other half of the flag, while the red cross of St George remains as it was in the days of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, except that the shape is long rather than square. This is the national flag of the British Empire aslipre, and should be called the Union flag to distinguish it from the Union Jack, which is norv really the red, white or blue ensign, having a miniature union flag in the canton next the staff. The Union Jack, popularly known as the “Jack,” derives its name from the upright spar in the ship’s bows, called the jackstaff, from which it was originally flown, when the ship w r as going into action, and to distinguish it from the St George Jack flown from a similar spar in a similar position up to the time of the Union with Scotland. For over two hundred years, the British navy was divided into three squadrons, the red, white and blue, and the ensigns were their distinguishing flags, but in the smoke of battle they were found to be confusing, and on the morning of Trafalgar Day, Nelson, who was vice-Admiral to the White, ordered the whole fleet to hoist the white ensign and that decision of the national hero

led to its being declared the whole ensign of the navy. The red ensign is the flag of the merchant marine, and the blue ensign is the flag of public offices on land, the consular service, colonial governments and their warships, of hired transports ,of all vessels commanded by royal naval reserve officers, and many sea-going activities over which the Government exercises control. Thus the red and white ensigns are sea flags pure and simple, the blue ensign largely so, and must not he flown

ashore in place of the Union Jack, because according to British flag lay, this latter is the only one an individual or corporation may fly. FLAGS IN OVERSEAS DOMINIONS. In Britain’s Overseas Dominions, where the red ensign is most familiar from the facts that it is the British merchant fleets which keep them in touch with the rest of the world, ana people know little of flag etiquette, the red ensign with a badge too often usurps the place of the Union Jack. Canada’s dominion flag is the reel ensign with the arms of Ontario, Quebec,

Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick as a badge in the fly. Australia’s commonwealth flag is the. red ensign with a seven pointed star, signifying the seven states and the southern, cross of five stars in the fly. New Zealand’s dominion flag is the red ensign with a cross of four stars in the fly. The Union of South Africa lias._the red ensign with the quarterings of Cape Colony, Natal, Orange River Colony, and Transvaal in the fly. But the Governors of all these imperials dominions fly the Union Jack proper, with a distinguishing badge in the centre, sucJ) as the Star of India

with the Crown above it for the Victory of India. The Union Jack should not he confused with the King’s colours, because it is not a military, hut a naval flag made of tough woollen bunting, while the King’s colour is of silk for land purposes only, and representative of the old banners, one for the nation, one for the regiment. The Union Jack is the distinguishing flag of the Admiral of the Fleet. ITS PSYCHOLOGY. From the time of Alfred the Great, England has claimed the sovereignty of the seas through the valour and daring of her sons in sailing the jjnehar-

ter Main, and risking life in exploring unkjnown lands. The first legal and international obligation on record to carry colours at sea, appears to have been agreed upon at the Convention of Bruges, when Edward I and Guy, Count of Flanders, undertook that their respective subjects should “for the future carry in their ensigns or flags, the arms of their own ports certifying their belongings to the said port,” though the Cinque Ports had carried colours for many years before, and a sort of code of flag etiquette was already in existence. Previous to this King John had: decreed in 1201 that if his admiral or lieutenant should meet any foreign ships at sea which refused to salute at command, their crews should be reputed as enemies, their colours and ships forfeited if captured. The first admission

by foreigners that England was mistress of the seas was in 1320, when Edward II was appealed to by the English to put a stop to piracy. Edward 111, by his naval victories won the title of King of the Sea in 1350 after the fight of Lespagnols-surmer, and the Netherlander willingly admitted this sovereignty so far as Craudon in the extreme west of Brittany. Under the Tudors foreign vessels which refused to salute the English flag, if taken became the lawful prize of the captain. A notable example of this enactment occurred

in 1554 when a Spanish fleet of IGO sail was escorting King Philip on his way to England to marry Queen Mary, and fell in with the English fleet under Lord William Howard, Lord High Admiral, with 28 ships. Pnilip would have passed without paying the customary hon-

our, but when a round shot crashed into. his Admiral’s ship, the hint was taken, and the Spanish fleet struck their colours and topsail in homage to tho English flag. It would read like a tyrannical custom supinely submitted to, as no custom duties were levied on ships passing throuh the Straits of Dover by England, the insistence on a. salute, which cost them nothing, came to bo regarded ns a courteous acknow. lodgment by foreign shipping on dues foregone. This salute to tho Flag of St George continued up to the time of tho Stuarts instead of money levy. But tho “Canny Scot” in James I insisted on a license for foreign ships to fish off the British :oasts, and in tho 18th century / the kings extended their sovereign righto

to Cape Finisterre. Previous to that time in 1635, the combined fleets of France and Holland decided to dispute Great Britain’s sovereignty of the seas. This belligerent act called out an English fleet at once, when the Dutch and French retreated to home ports, thinking discretion was the better part of valour, and in 1654 the Dutch agreed to striking flags and lowering topsail in salute to British vessels.

After Trafalgar, however, the foreign salute fell into abeyance, and now merchantmen! salute each other by dipping the flag as an act of courtesy only, though they must show colours if required. ' This is the place to impress the fact that though the English national flag had its birth and consecration in a great land battle for Christianity it is now not used by the army in the field except as part of the blue ensign in the War Office ordnance flag, with badges in the infantry line regiments and the guards, but is reserved entirely- for the navy, showing in this relatively, small matter how great a part England’s sea power has played in her development, and how the association of the Union Jack with the sea has influenced the British in their individual attitude towards their national flag. They “dress” their ships on occasions great and small, and the tiniest sail boat sports a flag. Yet on land they are most casual about hoisting the flag, displaying it in tlieir homes, or even possessing a toy one. In fact, they do not apparently surround it with any of the solicitude and worstiip Americans show towards the Stars and Stripes, though deep down in their hearts they yield to none in love and honour of it.

It may be that their flag, having a religious origin, and to that extent sacred, they do not enthuse over it with the same “flair” as Americans do over the Stars and Stripes, which was created out of an ideal born of the aftermath of a bitter civil war, and .. proclaimed as a symbol of triumphant freedom. As such it has been the inspiration of ode, song, and essay of great vigor, glowing in idealism and in sentiment.

BRITISH ATTITUDE TOWARDS NATIONAL STANDARD. It is possible to read the psychology of a nation in its attitude towards its national emblem. To Britishers the Union Jack is above all a flog of toleration. It is that easy going English toleration which aliens find so hard to understand in them. They sometimes construe it as adherent slackness, or a desire to avoid quarrels by evading the issue. But rarely at its true, value as a characteristic of latent strength prompted by the spirit of fair play to all. Individuals of every nation may hoist their flag on British soil and to any height, so long as the act is not intended to be antagonistic to the Government, and no Britisher will regard it as a slight to their flag. On the contrary, the feeling is rather one of approval because it shows that the foreigner has not yet lost his natural love of his native land. LESSON TAUGHT BY AMERICAN LOVE FOR “OLD GLORY.”

Britishers appreciate the lesson Americans have taught them that they should make more of their flag in civilian life, and that its history and psychology are valuable studies in the education of the children of to-day and citizen of the future.