A Lucky Thought

Philatelic Covers Worth 100 Dollars Each

From Our Own Correspondent

Honolulu, Dec. 12.

WHEN Richard Archbold and his companions flew off from Hawaii on June 6 for New Guinea, via Wake Island, Russell Rogers stuffed in his pocket 20 “covers” (stamped envelopes) given to him by a group of enthusiastic (and lucky) Honolulu philatelists.

Each cover was addressed to a person in Honolulu, and a 2-cents U.S. postage

stamp was affixed to each. The covers all bore the notation “First flight— Hawaii to New Guinea. Archbold Expe dition, flying boat Guba, June, 1938”.

After some haggling, the Honolulu post office was persuaded to postmark each “Honolulu, 1 p.m., June 6, 1938”.

A newspaper reporter waited until the last minute, until Russ. Rogers had the Cuba’s engines warmed up, and he was about to set off. Then anxiously, hur riedly, the reporter appealed to Russ.: “Say, fella, please take these along and mail them when you get to New Guinea”, he beseeched.

Richard Archbold had turned down every other request, from all over the U.S. mainland and even Europe, but good-natured Russ, looked around to see if Archbold was looking, and he wasn’t, so Russ, pocketed the bundle, and so off they went!

It took the “covers” exactly three days to reach New Guinea—that is, by air— but it took them five months and 19 days to get back to Honolulu—because they came by steamer via the Orient.

En route, they were back-stamped at Hollandia (New Guinea) and Hong Kong.

Besides being the first covers carried by air from Hawaii to New Guinea, they are the first direct between Hawaii and Wake, and between Wake and New Guinea.

U.S. collectors are hot about them.

New York offers, for example, currently are at 100 dollars each. But the local lucky lads are hanging on to them. The price will go up.