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MAURITIUS PHILATELIC SOCIETY

QUARTERLY UPDATES

No. 3 – 2019

JULY - SEPTEMBER

JULY 2019:

Two society meetings were held during the third quarter of 2019 one in July and the

other in September. No society meeting was held in August.

The society meeting of July was held on Saturday 5th July at College du St Esprit, Sir

Virgil Naz Avenue, Quatre Bornes at 14:00 hours. Convocations dated 25th June were posted

from Britannia post office on 26th June.

The agenda listed, New stamps issues, Displays by A N Maderbokus, Mico Antoine,

Thonyno Dieudonne and Alain Louis from whom the society had had confirmation of their

participation in response to the call made in May. The “Any member may bring their

material/display” note on the convocation resulted in only one response, Randhir Mungra. All

five participants are members of the committee.

The notice board was covered with press cuttings of the Metro Express/light

railway/tramway of Mauritius news, a couple of “Allez Maurice” propaganda marks including

a strange 7th November 1984 FDC from Australia backstamped 11/JU/19 at the Port Louis

“Office of Exchange” and cacheted with a JIOI handstamp. An article on the sale of a french

owned dodo skeleton in London during May, without any delirious ranting from the self

proclaimed No.1 protector of Mauritius patrimony, was discussed with some derision. Details

of the 8th June launching of a book by a former guest speaker, Raj Boodhoo on “Infectuous

Diseases and Public Health, Mauritius, 1810-2010” and other philatelic related news were dealt

with.

A N Maderbokus showed an interesting range of colonial period privately made FDCs

of Mauritius that included those of the definitive issue of QE II of 1953 (SG293-306) on three

separate FDCs and one exceptional George VI silver wedding 1948 (SG270-271) FDC; all

rather hard to come by covers struck with clear postmarks. Mico Antoine put on a small

collection of the “Visit of the Pope John Paul II” to Mauritius material of 1989 in advance of

the yet to be confirmed visit of the Pope Francis stamp in September 2019. Alain Louis

presented a well organized selection of the society’s convocation covers all very clean white

envelopes most well struck with very clear postmarks all with complete address and postcode

number (a relative rarity in today’s Mauritius) and the society’s address stamped on the

backflap; a collection of some 30 covers mailed from 30 different post offices of Mauritius.

Thonyno Dieudonne showed his rare and possibly unique trio of KLM First Flight Covers

accompanied by several photographs. The covers of the incoming flight from Schiphol Airport,

Amsterdam and SSR Airport, Mauritius signed by the cockpit crew were shown before

however more details were provided since the service has now stopped flying to Mauritius. The

only other participant, Randhir Mungra, showed a couple of QSL cards, a pair of recently

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acquired historical postcards of Port Louis harbour and some 1970 Mauritius Broadcasting

Corporation request postcards.

All the six displayed units damaged, at some unknown date at the beginning of the year,

now repaired with more esthetic high grade material were fully utilized, filled with very good

Mauritius philatelic topics.

The Purchase List and the Bid Board offered some 50 items for sale to the 14 members

attending the July meeting.

The convocations dated 25th June 2019 were posted from Britannia on 26th June.

AUGUST 2019

No society meeting was held in August. The management committee met on 6th July

and on 7th September with 6 and 7 members respectively. For the first time in 30 years of

existence a scheduled committee monthly meeting of August was not held. This is because on

4th July 2019 the Registrar of Associations certified the amendments to the rules and regulations

of the society as published in Quarterly Update No.1 of March 2019. In future the management

committee meeting will meet at quarterly and not monthly intervals.

BRITANNIA

POST OFFICE

Opened : 1970

Current Location :

Main Road

Postcode : 61201

ATTEND YOUR SOCIETY MEETINGS

ATTENDANCE FIGURES 2019

JAN - MARCH 2019 - JANUARY N/A, FEBRUARY 9, MARCH 14

APRIL – JUNE 2019 – APRIL N/A, MAY 12, JUNE N/A

JULY – SEPTEMBER 2019 – JULY – 14 – AUGUST N/A – SEPTEMBER 15

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SEPTEMBER 2019

The society meeting was held on Saturday 7th September at College du St Esprit at the

usual time.

The agenda dated 24th August 2019, posted from New Grove on the 27th of the month,

listed the following:

New Issues which includes JIOI, Pierre Poivre, Metro Express.

Visit of Pope John Paul II 1989

Again with an invitation to members to bring along their material and subjects along.

A N Maderbokus presented the 10th J.I.O.I. three stamps set and miniature sheet, the

300th Birth Anniversary of Pierre Poivre single stamp and the I.C.J. two stamps set and

miniature sheet in his usual well researched presentation together with relevant support

material. Mico Antoine assisted with a range of large colour photograph of the Seychelles JIOI

games of 1993 and several commercial “Allez Maurice” covers with the two types of cachets.

Doc’s Pierre Poivre anniversary lone tree trunk stamp was a very professional presentation

bolstered with the participation of several members. The ICJ pair of stamps and its

accompanying miniature sheet was not appreciated at all. It was highly criticized for its concept

and the politically captured opportunism of the enforced issue. On 7th September 2019, two

days before the visit of the catholic pope no information on the stamp(s) to be issued on 9th

September 2019 was available, apart from the declaration of another special public holiday

hence the issue was not dealt with.

The convocations dated 24th August 2019 were posted from New Grove on 27th August.

In addition to the presentation of the new issues of Mauritius, A N Maderbokus showed

some interesting items on “Numismatic and Mauritian philately” such as SCCs with coins,

NEW GROVE

POST OFFICE

Opened : 02.08.2015

Current Location :

Deux Bras Road

Postcode : 51222

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stamps featuring banks, some coins and bank notes of Mauritius and other associated

numismatic items.

In addition to presenting the new stamps issued Doc put on a one unit display of the

society’s continuous comparison of today’s unsolvable postmark problems of Mauritius with

covers and stamps of the colonial era and of the new millennium period. There is simply no

comparison; the period 2001 to 2019 being a disgraceful disaster. A special feature of this

aspect of Mauritius is scheduled for the Quarterly Updates of December 2019.

The Pope John Paul II visit of 1989 material was shown by Mico Antoine, a fairly large

collection of the five stamp set of the occasion consisting of the OFDC, SCCs, privately

prepared FDCs, the Mauritian postcard, half a dozen Vatican papal postcards and maxicards of

Mauritius, a range of covers made by a group of Italian philatelist for their overseas markets,

some of which were made available to local collectors, were also shown.

The notice board was loaded with press cuttings on Pierre Poivre and the imminent visit

of Pope Francis with some JIOI snippets and almost nothing on the ICJ stamps simply because

the issue was not given much coverage by the local press, not as much as the other two events

anyway. Other items were a pre-issue draft of John Turnbull’s “Perfins of Mauritius”, Jean

Claude Montocchio’s state of Mauritian philately today with Giandev Motteea in his crosshairs,

the IOSC’s (Indian Ocean Study Circle) feature on Said Kurmally’s fraudulent “laser printed

postmarks of Mauritius” scams and other philatelic news of Mauritius including that of the

bronze medal awarded to Mauritius at the China 2019 World Stamp Exhibition in June 2019.

Some Purchase List and Bid Board material were on offer to the 15 members

present at the meeting.

COMMEMORATIVE STAMPS

JEUX DES ILES DE L’OCEAN INDIEN

Three postage stamps were issued on 19th July 2019 on the opening day of the 10th

Indian Ocean islands games held in Mauritius from 19th July to 28th July 2019. The stamps

feature respectively “COJI Mascot, Krouink” representing the only surviving endemic parrot

psittacula egues, the official logo of the games in the form of the dodo’s head composed of

four athletes in the national colours of Mauritius (red - blue - green - yellow) with the

inscription “10e JIOI/Maurice 2019”, and the photograph of a “laser” sailing race “La Voile”

scene with the faces of the competitors blacked out under a dull dark grey July sky rather than

a bright blue sky ocean scene. All the three stamps are inscribed “Jeux des Îles de/l’Océan

Indien 2019”.

Six paragraphs of the data card about these stamps marking the 40th Anniversary of the

games 1979-2019, four lines of historical notes, the 10th edition of the IOIG in Mauritius, FDC

notes, details on the three stamps and the “Souvenir Sheet” with the technical details together

with 14 pictograms of the disciplines provides enough information for the collector. However

there is not a single word, not even in the courtesy credits, on the designers of the mascot and

the logo of the two stamps copy-pasted by the Mauritius Post graphic works department. The

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mascot was created by “Cread Advertising Agency” and the prize-winning logo by Benoit

Juliette.

The Official First Day Cover is illustrated with the mascot in pictograms of the 14

disciplines and the games torch as well as an overhead view of what the infrastructure of Côte

d’Or Sports Complex would look like when finished. It was not ready for the games! The three

stamps affixed in disorder to the right of the cover are cancelled with the First Day of

Issue/Mauritius Type D 27mm double circle cds at 8:15 AM/19 JL/19. No special cachet mars

the cover. The logo of Mauritius Post is printed on the gumless back flap. The OFDC was on

sale at Rs 150.00 each as from the official opening day of the games.

A miniature sheet inscribed “Souvenir Sheet” measuring 133 x 100 mm imprinted with

the set’s title incorporates the three stamps in correct denomination order against a cream

background, the COJI (Comité d’Organisation des Jeux des Iles de l’Océan Indien) Mascot

Krouink pictograms feature above and below the three stamps with an additional logo of the

mascot holding the games’ torch. The miniature sheet was priced at Rs 52.00, the face value of

the stamps. No OFDC was produced with the M/S.

ICJ ADVISORY OPINION OF DECOLONISATION

On 25th February 2019 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Holland,

delivered an advisory opinion in favour of Mauritius on Mauritius’ territorial claim against the

UK’s illegal occupation of the British Indian Ocean Territory also known as the Chagos

Archipelago. The ICJ advisory opinion was subsequently adopted by a special resolution of the

United Nations (UN) in New York, USA, on 22nd May 2019 wherein the UK was ordered to

restore the territorial integrity of Mauritius by returning the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius

within six months before 22nd November 2019.

In 1965, before Mauritius became independent the colonial authority, Britain, excised

the Chagos Archipelago from the then colony, depopulated the islands, displaced the coconut

plantation workers with their families and resettled them in Mauritius and the Seychelles. The

UK subsequently leased the main B.I.O.T. atoll of Diego Garcia, to the USA for use as a

military base which the Americans refer to as their “Footprint of Freedom in the Indian Ocean”.

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On 18th July 2019 the Government of Mauritius decided to add to the 2019 “Stamp

Issue Programme” a special stamp issue to commemorate the two “great legal and political

victories” of the Republic of Mauritius as well as that of the local Mauritius based leader of the

displaced islanders. Within 36 days on 23rd August 2019, a date of no particular significance,

two postage stamps and a miniature sheet were released. The government could not wait for

the more appropriate UN resolution date of 22nd November 2019 deadline for purely political

reasons.

(The OFDC illustration – See Supplement for the stamps and miniature sheet)

The title of the two stamps and M/S is ICJ Advisory Opinion on Decolonisation and

features respectively

Rs 13.00 – Islands of Chagos Archipelago

Rs 25.00 – The International Court of Justice

The data card write up is a short selective political history of the event. The OFDC

illustration shows the integral territories of Mauritius in red, dotted in the vast blue expanse of

the South West Indian Ocean, with an inset of the Afro-Asian half section of the globe

pinpointing the position of Mauritius and the Chagos Archipelago. The coat of arms of

Mauritius is printed on the left top of the cover and a band of the national colours runs along

the whole of the bottom. The two stamps affixed to the right are cancelled with a single strike

of the First Day of Issue/Mauritius 27mm Type D double circle circular datestamp at 8:15

AM/23 AU/19. Mauritius Post logo is imprinted on the gumless back flap. The OFDC went on

sale at the usual postal outlets at Rs 130.00 per unit and the M/S at Rs 38.00 the face value of

the two stamps. The miniature sheet measuring 133 x 100 mm is inscribed in small print

Souvenir Sheet and incorporates the two stamps in correct order, with the United Nations

building in New York in the background. No OFDC was produced for the miniature sheet.

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300TH BIRTH ANNIVESARY OF PIERRE POIVRE (1719-2019)

To mark the 300th birth anniversary of Pierre Poivre, born on 23rd August 1719 in Lyon

France, Mauritius Post issued a lousy postage stamp on the actual anniversary date featuring

the trunk and foliage of an ebony tree with Pierre Poivre in medallion inset. In Mauritius Pierre

Poivre is regarded as an achiever, developer and contributor to the agricultural sector. He

realized that the island was not producing enough essential food crops for its inhabitants and

that the concentration on the monocrop sugar at the expense of the native hardwood natural

forest was highly detrimental. Apart from his contribution to the agricultural sector he is

credited with the introduction of the printing press and the creation of the Pamplemousses

Botanical Garden. He supervised the reconstruction of Port Louis and oversaw the financial

recovery of the island. He introduced spices such as the nutmeg and cloves with the intention

of breaking the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade on the European market. Both spices were

not commercially successful. It is Zanzibar that became the spice island of the African region

of the Indian Ocean not Mauritius.

Pierre Poivre has in the past been featured on several postage stamps of Mauritius,

directly and indirectly. His 2019 reappearance in a small medallion peeping-tom appearance is

rather scornful. The dominating lichen infested ebony tree does not do justice to him especially

that in 2019 Mauritius can boast of a total of only 2% of natural forest. The rest of the land was

planted almost exclusively with sugar cane that once earned Mauritius the distinction of being

referred to as the “sugar lump” in the Indian Ocean. Today concrete, real estate developments,

gated residential compounds and shopping malls are replacing sugar cane fields – evidence that

Pierre Poivre forest conservation concerns were not understood by his ardent admirers.

The Official First Day Cover however tells another story. A colour portrait of Pierre

Poivre with his 15th November 1769 anti-deforestation regulation, his signature from a paper

money note of 1768, insets of the nutmeg and clove spices from the 1995 spices stamps

(SG916/918) plus a special commemorative cachet featuring the Dupsis poiveana, a Malagasy

palm, the only plant in the world named after him, all adorn the OFDC.

The quality of the data card write up, the work of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences

in Mauritius, is exceptionally well constructed and of the highest standard unlike the usual

rubbish churned out in most Mauritius Post inserts. The data however is marred by the

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accompanying "used" stamps illustrating the write up, one with its khaki backing paper.

Compared to the ebony trunk of the stamp, the misconceived artistic overdo unesthetically

clutters both the OFDC and data card. Pierre Poivre’s 300th year commemoration deserves

more, much more than a single postage stamp.

The stamp is affixed to the right top corner of the cover and is cancelled with one strike

of the 27mm Type D First Day of Issue/Mauritius cds at 8:15 AM/23 AU/19. The logo of

Mauritius Post is imprinted on the gumless back flap. The cover was priced at Rs 120.00 and

was available at the usual postal outlets.

VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS IN MAURITIUS

The catholic pope, His Holiness Francis, paid a lightening politically captured visit to

Mauritius on 9th September 2019 from approximately 10:00 hours to 19:00 hours, no more than

a total of some nine hours. This Monday, usually a normal working day, was declared a public

holiday which benefitted the catholic community with an extended week-end when coupled

with the Blessed Père Désiré Laval annual pilgrimage which in 2019 began on Thursday 5th

September.

The pope was welcomed with all the honours and trappings of a visiting head of state

on arrival. The government of Mauritius provided the protocol and decorum ceremonials

reserved for such diplomatic occasions.

The three highlights of the visit were respectively an open air mass at the Marie Reine

de la Paix grounds in Port Louis followed by a visit to the shrine housing the sarcophagus of

the Blessed Père Désiré Laval at Sainte Croix. The third event was a function at State House

dominated by and abused by the nepotistic head of state’s (the nominated acting president) and

smallness of the head of government’s (the prime minister) extended families of grandfathers,

grandmothers, fathers, mothers, children and grandchildren plus in laws and other relatives’

shameless pettiness at Réduit. At the end of the final spectacle the pope headed straight for the

airport and left Mauritius … no doubt very impressed.

To mark the occasion Mauritius Post issued a graphically worked predominantly cream

postage stamp (the same colour as the pope’s robes) of Rs 13.00 featuring the pope, a couple

of red, blue, green and yellow leaves and the gold outline of a peace dove with the legend Pape

François/Pèlerin/de Paix/Maurice 2019… a disproportionately small pope’s portrait on a

relatively big stamp! The same image is printed on the data card in a much better proportionate

presentation. The data card write up is not worth much.

The Official First Day Cover is illustrated with a partial view of Marie Reine de la Paix

focused on the marble statue and the altar of the open air chapel. The stamp affixed to the top

right of the cover is cancelled with one strike of the First Day of Issue/Mauritius Type D 27mm

double circle cds at 2-PM/9 SE/19 without any additional commemorative cachet. The logo of

Mauritius Post is imprinted on the gumless back flap of the cover which was put on sale

exceptionally at 15 selected post offices at Rs 80.00 per unit from 2 pm to 4 pm on Monday 9th

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September, a special public holiday in Mauritius. On 10th September the cover was offered for

general sale at Mauritius Post’s normal outlets.

The alternative use of English and French on the pope’s stamp, OFDC and data card is

an advertisement of the smartness of Mauritius bilingualism viz. Visit of Pope Francis in

Mauritius and Pape François/Pèlerin/de Paix/Maurice 2019.

(Data card illustration actual size 75mm x 35mm)

CLOSURE OF POST OFFICE

VERDUN

We have recently learnt that Verdun Post Office has been closed since 30th June 2018,

over a year ago, after a member informed us that he had noticed that the office was never open

when he passed by. After investigation we can now confirm that Verdun Post Office was closed

for renovation as from 30th June 2018 and that it is unlikely it will ever open again. Verdun

Post Office located in a former railway station office opened on 15th November 1880.

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UNION FLACQ

Union Flacq Post Office was “officially” closed to the public as from Sunday 1st

September 2019. An “Important Notice” dated 05 August 2019 advised Mauritius Post’s valued

customers of the closure directing them to use either Lalmatie or Central Flacq post offices in

future.

On the same date, 05 August 2019, another “Important Notice for Pensioners” advised

that Union Flacq Post Office would exceptionally pay pensioners on Saturday 07 September

2019 from 8:15 hrs to 11:15 hrs and those who cannot make it on that date should go to

Lalmatie Post Office (without any mention of Central Flacq) from 10th to 19th September for

their pensions.

Those running Mauritius Post have a weird sense of humour. The Union Flacq Post

Office could not and did not open for business on Sunday 1st September 2019 therefore Union

Flacq’s last day of “official” postal business was Saturday 31st August at 11:45 AM when the

doors closed. For those philatelists/marcopholists collecting first day/last day postmarks/covers

this is of prime importance. Furthermore if the exceptional opening of 7th September 2019 was

for the payment of pensions only how come the society has seen a commercial cover

postmarked 8:15AM/7 SP/19 … struck twice for good measure to prove that apart from the

payment of pensions other postal business was conducted. Union Flacq Post Office was

operational as from 21st May 1973.

P.S. Not much works properly at Mauritius Post anymore. Philatelist have a choice of three

different dates to opt for the official date of the actual closure of Union Flacq Post Office. We

at Mauritius Philatelic Society have decided it was Saturday 31st August 2019 the last day of

official business, follow us and not Mauritius Post.

MAIN CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES

The average exchange rate for September 2019 was:

Rs 45.394 for GBP £1 / Rs 40.443 for EUR €1 / Rs 36.729 for USD $1

(Source: Bank of Mauritius)

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PUBLICITY HANDSTAMP

The 10e Jeux des Iles 2019 Mauritius Post sponsored 50mm x 30mm rubber stamp mark

has been seen on mail in two different versions. The dimensions are the same as are the fonts

and four line message arrangement. The version reported on and shown in Quarterly Updates

No.2 of June 2019 “Allez Maurice” is in inverted commas, the other Allez Maurice version is

without inverted commas as shown hereunder.

THE PRESS AND THE POST

13.07.2019 L’express Un facteur enterrait des milliers de lettres (P.B.).

19.07.2019 L’express Les Chagos et le Pape François à l’honneur sur des

timbres.

19.07.2019 Le Défi Quotidien Timbres sur les Chagos et la visite du pape.

25.07.2019 L’express Traffic Postal/Rs 7.5m de drogue dans un colis.

03.08.2019 L’express Un « digital service centre » dans les bureaux de poste.

08.08.2019 Le Défi Quotidien Du crystal meth … saisi à la poste.

23.08.2019 Le Défi Quotidien Rs 300,000 de cannabis dans des colis postaux.

26.08.2019 Le Défi Quotidien 300 ans de Pierre Poivre … nouveau timbre-poste.

26.08.2019 Le Défi Quotidien Le tricentenaire de la naissance de Pierre Poivre célébré.

20.09.2019 Le Défi Plus La Reine Elisabeth et son fameux timbre-poste de

Maurice.

PLEASE RENEW YOUR SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE YEAR 2020

BEFORE THE 31ST DECEMBER 2019

Written by Mico W. Antoine – Layout Arnaud D. Guibert

Note: The material contained in this update has been compiled and collated in good faith for general information and no liability can be accepted for errors and omissions.