Lanarkshire Philatelic Society

Croatia

Croatia from 1941 to 1945 was the title of the display at the latest Society meeting.

Tony Bosworth, from Kent, described how Hitler had persuaded Prince Paul of Yugoslavia to be part of the Fascist Union and eventually signed a Treaty in March 1941 with Italy, Germany and Croatia. This gave the German army access to Yugoslav soil and, inevitably, the Serbs staged a people's coup. Prince Paul fled into exile, whilst the Yugoslavs signed a friendly treaty with Russia. As a result of this, Hitler swept through Croatia, where he was welcomed, and through the rest of Yugoslavia, which was flattened. The new state of Croatia was formed in April 1941. An Italian was brought in to rule Croatia until Italy withdrew in 1943. Several stamps were issued. Initially stamps and postal stationery were overprinted. Stamp collectors had to beware as several issues have been cleverly forged. The Red Cross issued a set each October. Numerous Exhibitions were celebrated by stamp issues.

Most towns had their own Army Censor Post to monitor the mail. Slogan postmarks included "Work harder to shorten the war". Croatia lost more men in the civil war against Tito then they did on the Eastern Front against Russia. The last stamp was issued in May 1945. Tony supplemented his talk with various anecdotes and claimed that it had all been collected since 1990.

Raymond Baldock provided the Vote of Thanks.

The next meeting, on Friday 14th November, will see Dr Ian Evans display "Spain"