Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain


Vol. 3 No. 9; March 1, 2006


Poplar Borough Council

by Michael Behm

The Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was created in 1899 and incorporated into the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1965. According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, Poplar was part of the poor and densely populated East End. It was "a district of narrow, squalid streets and mean houses, among which, however, the march of modern improvement may be seen in the erection of model dwellings, mission houses and churches, and various public buildings." In 1911 Poplar Borough's total population was 162,442 (by 1951 the population was 73,579).

After World War I, the docks and railways in Poplar saw reduced traffic, which led to unemployment and hardship. By 1921 Poplar had a rateable value of £4m and 86,500 unemployed to support. By contrast, West London had a rateable value of £15m to support only 4,800 jobless. As the recession increased, so did Poplar's expenses: its weekly unmeplyment bill rose from £4,500 in June 1921 to £7,630 in September.

All London Borough Councils had to pay for cross-capital authorities: the London County Council, the Metropolitan Police Authority, the Metropolitan Asylum Board, and the Water Board. However, these charges were not based on the Borough's ability to pay; in effect Poplar was paying towards the costs of rich boroughs for certain common services, but not receiving similar pooling to help poor relief.

Mayor George Lansbury proposed that the Council stop collecting the rates for outside, cross-London bodies. This council agreed on 31 March 1921. The London County Council and the Metropolitan Asylum Board went to court to force the Poplar Borough Council to pay. In court, the Council explained why it was impossible to pay, but to no avail. The Court declared that the Poplar Councillors had to pay the rates or go to prison. They went to prison.

In a show of solidarity and with great public support, several Metroplitan Borough Councils announced their intention to follow Poplar's example. Faced with this, the London Authorities (Financial Provision) Act 1921 was hurriedly enacted by the Government as an attempt to equalize the unemployment burden somewhat. This social activism became known as 'Poplarism' and challenged the whole of the Poor Law, which was eventually repealed.

Poplar Borough Council was able to produce overprints from 1899 to 1965. However, relatively few overprint/stamp combinations have been reported:

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C. & M. Stn.

by Michael Behm

"C. & M. Station" is the Civil and Military Station in Bangalore, Mysore, India. It was a British military base that had a cantonment—an area where the non-military people (such as pensioners) lived. This was quite a large area; in 1933 there were 134,113 people living there, of which about 100,000 were born in Mysore, 2,200 were British, and another 400 were from other countries.

In 1923 the people of the Cantonment were in a quandry: they were not allowed representation in the Imperial Legislatures because they were in Mysore territory, but they were not allowed representation in the Mysore Representative Assembly because the Contonment was not administered by Mysore.

A possible solution was retrocession, a return of the area to Mysore administration. Debate on this idea continued for decades, with Muslims suggesting that their religion and culture would be at risk, and the British fearing that their educational system would be at risk. For their part, the Mysore government said that it would make any accomodations necessary. Nothing was done immediately, and the Second World War came and went. At the war's end it seemed that the British were preparing to turn over the administration of India, so the Maharaja of Mysore did not press the issue. On August 15, 1947, C. & M. Station returned to Mysore State.



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