OUR PRESIDENT'S PARAGRAPH
The 39th Philatelic Congress of Great Britain will be held this year at Harrogate from 14th to 17th May, and as you will observe elsewhere in this issue we have again been invited to give a display in the frames at the Exhibition. We had a remarkably fine show at Brighton last year, and I have no doubt that the material being kindly loaned by members on this occasion will maintain the very high standard. The success of our usual Circle meeting on the Thursday evening largely depends on there being some interesting sheets to pass round, and I would ask all those who hope to attend to make sure they have a few pages with them before they start their journey. One person I am very much looking forward to meeting there is my good friend from Jamaica. Mr. G. C. Gunter. O.B.E., who plans to be in England in May, and I hope that he arrives in time for Congress. I owe very much to Mr. Gunter for the help he has given me over many years, in building up my Jamaica collection. It is very nice to have a friend resident in the colony one specialises in, and I have always been able to look forward to receiving first day covers, blocks with plate numbers and varieties. One of his very earliest sendings to me were covers from the famous Barclay's and McDowell find in Kingston way back in 1920. What an accumulation of covers this must have been as some examples from it seem to be included in every Jamaica collection of note. I have 35 covers in my collection comprising GB used in Jamaica and the Pine issue. I have only one CC on cover bearing a pair of 3d., and have never seen a pre-adhesive from this source. Surely there must have been some, but one has to remember that at that period the stamp was the thing and probably anything without a stamp was thought to be worthless and was consequently destroyed.
G. W. COLLETT.