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From the library
Ottawa Conference 1932
For the past year or more when reading a newspaper or hearing a news bulletin, the words credit crunch, recession, inflation, deflation, depression and so forth have abounded. This is nothing new of course and as was recorded in a recent philatelic article, brought to my attention by our librarian, stamps can help to remind us of world events that other wise would have faded from memory. One such event was the Imperial Economic Conference that was held in Ottawa, Canada in 1932 following three years of world economic depression. Canada issued three special stamps plus an overprint to mark the occasion.
The then Prime Minister of Canada, Richard Bennett, came up with the idea of a conference. He was in favour of imperial preference in trade policy so that goods from the British Commonwealth and Empire countries had little or no import duty but the same commodities from other countries had a high duty levied. The conference opened on 21st July 1932 and closed on 20th August. Britain, Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland were the main participants and at its close, the Ottawa Agreements, which set in place preferential trading rules to the detriment of non-Commonwealth nations, were agreed.
These trading patterns were to remain in place until Great Britain joined the European Common Market in 1973.
The three stamps were the 3c Scarlet (domestic letter rate), 5c blue (UPU overseas rate) and 13c green for registered inland mail.
The 3c shown above left was the first appearance of the Medallion’ portrait of King George V. It was popular and went on to replace the ‘Arch’ design of the then definitive series just 5 months later. The 5c design showed the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII. The 13c shown above right has Britannia between globes of the western and eastern hemispheres. The enlargement below shows the Ottawa Conference inscription at the base.
The three stamps were issued on 12th July along with a special airmail stamp, which was produced by overprinting the stock of airmail stamps in use from late 1930 showing Mercury with the western hemisphere. The airmail rate had increased to 6c from 5c so the overprint had two ‘6’s to show the new rate and ‘Ottawa Conference 1932’. Half a million were prepared mainly for the easy passage of the delegate’s mail, both official and personal.
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