Lahad Datu

The present situation in that area is giving some cause for concern. I was hoping my much anticipated tour of Sabah in April would not be affected but it is very much in doubt. I will not go into the politics of it here because I have more or less waived my rights for being a long term resident overseas. But I can at least say this. It is universally accepted in any modern democracy that all citizens are fundamentally entitled to a choice in self determination by exercising the right to vote and not through force or coercion. History is but a tool in making a decision such as this.

This blog went viral last weekend with more than a hundred hits on Saturday alone. The item that netizens were mainly interested in was my posting in December 2011 because there was a brief summary of the history and more interestingly scans of both the treaties with the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu respectively in Jawi. You can see it by clicking here.
Anyway, I am posting the images here again.

 Brunei Treaty

Treaty Sulu

And also for more historical details from a prolific blogger click on this link:

http://g8fight.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/north-borneo-historical-figure-founding.html

or here.

Here are the English translation of the treaties. There are obviously more than two. You can draw your conclusions regarding the true ownership of these lands.

Treaty Sulu

Treaty Brunei

Treaty Padas 

Kuching Paquebot SL8

I can not for the life of me distinguish between SL8 and SL9 in Ted Proud's book. They also have the same prewar years of usage between 1936 and 1941. They are not that uncommon and is an interesting paquebot cds but after the war, for whatever reasons, use reverted to the straight line types, either letters alone as in the very rare SL10 with the funny looking "Q" or letters within parallel lines or a box.

This does not look very interesting being an obvious CTO on the first day of use. However, we have a postwar cypher stamp with a cancellation date of 2 DEC 1947. SL8 was brought into use again postwar between 2.12.47 and 7.3.48. I have been reliably informed that postwar covers of this type are quite uncommon.

Having found a commercial cover with a postwar cypher stamp with a date possibly of 14 FEB 1948, I am obliged to downgrade it to relatively uncommon rather than rare.