Our annual stamp exhibition held at the Gilwell Park, during March was reasonably well attended with a steady stream of visitors.  We were pleased to see a number of our members, included many from abroad, who were attending the Badgers Club's meeting and A.G.M.  Among the visitors to our exhibition was John Harley, the retired archivist of Harrison's the printer, who I mentioned in my last Chairman's notes regarding the 1957 Jamboree 2½d overprinted "Specimen".  He spoke to a number of our members and mentioned that he was involved in the production of many of the Scout stamps on show.

Attending Stampex at the end of February I picked up a copy of Rushstamps price list and was interested to read that they are now selling the 1957 Scout Jamboree perfin set of three for £25.  Their price for this set has increased from £15 last year and they write "it has now been confirmed that these are genuine perfins by Slopers and were intended for employees and special customers".  They believe that only 1200 sets were produced.  The "Poached egg" testing labels that were printed imperf between, and were specially produced to try out the coils for the Jamboree a covers are now offered at £5 the pair while the Harrison Presentation sheet is priced at £95.

More news about the 4th Euro Scout meeting in Gent, Belgium is coming through and the exhibition now has its own web site www.euroscout2002.com This gives a considerable amount of information including an application form to exhibit.  However not everybody has facilities to go on line, so I do hope that all information will be available on paper.  The exhibition will be held over the weekend of 25th-27th October 2002 and will be held at the International Congress Centre in the Citadel Park.  There will also be the 11th European Scout Collectors Meeting in collaboration with the Leuven Scout Museum on Saturday 26th October.  The theme of the weekend will be "Among friends".

I am still amazed by our member Colin Walker's web site www.scoutingmilestones.freeserve.co.uk, which is the best Scout History site I have seen.  The many articles have been painstakingly researched to reveal fresh evidence in terms of text and illustrations on such subjects as the Mafeking Cadets, B.P.'s first three camps, the formation of each of the various Scout sections, each of the three Peace Cruises, The Train Cruises, Jack Cornwell etc.  There is also a unique B.P. Chronology with over 1000 entries that links back to the web articles, and this site is continually being updated.  Colin also maintains (but has not yet published) a "Siege Register" of all the inhabitants in Mafeking during the Siege.  By reading all available diaries, including B.P.'s Staff Diary, the Mafeking Mail Siege Slips, Medal Registers, Auction catalogues, and all the known contemporary published works, he now has a data base of the "doings" of 1700 plus inhabitants at the time of the Siege.  He tells me that he would be delighted to answer any queries members may have on individuals in Mafeking.  He can be contacted by phone 019xx-xxxxxx or at his web address.  

My travels have taken me to Budapest again and I was pleased to spend one day recently with our Hungarian member József Zimmerman.  Although over 80 years of age, he now is on the internet and keeps in touch with friends worldwide by this amazing method of communication.  I attended a stamp auction in Budapest, but the prices seem to continually increase, especially ephemera from the 1933 World Jamboree.  If any of you go into www.ebay.com you will see what high prices are now being paid for World Jamboree material.  I was also pleased to welcome Hallvard Slettebø from Norway who came to the UK to attend the Stampex and Philatex stamp shows.

Among the many stamp catalogues I receive was one from Majer & Thraumb from Prague in the Czech Republic.  Many times they offer very good 1918 Scout material for auction, and recently one of the greatest of all varieties came up for sale when they offered one of only four known copies of the President Masaryk 20h red with the overprint inverted.  Two copies are in the Czech Museum in Prague, while two (including this one) are in private hands.  The estimated price was approximately £29,000 (US$ 40,000) but it failed to sell.  Also in the sale was a President Masaryk cover estimated at approximately £3100 ($4285) but again this did not sell.  I guess the estimates were too high!