US Possessions Covers And Cards

It occurred to me that, while places like Puerto Rico and the Philippines may get grouped in with territorials, they are technically possessions. So it seems like they deserve their own topic. Here are a few from my collection.

The 1914 Philippines cover has a nice letter with some interesting content. It's from Eugene H. Kolb, a U.S. officer stationed in the hinterlands north of Manila on the cusp of WWI. "...Well, there certainly are big doings in Europe now. I get war telegraphs here from the Gov. Gen. as soon as they arrive in Manila. Received 2 long telegrams yesterday. I don't think the war will last very long; I don't believe it can in modern warfare; it's done too quickly when the show begins.
It's a good thing for us that the U.S. has kept out of the mix-up. If the U.S. should get mixed up in a war these ungrateful people of the lowlands would, no doubt, start something right away."

Here's a very obscure U.S. "possession" -- Canton Island, about 700 miles north of Samoa (now Kanton Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati). It was an island stop for the Pan Am clipper. In 1938 FDR declared Canton to be under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. That displeased the British, who considered Canton part of their Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. In 1939, Britain and the U.S. agreed to joint control for the next 40 years. A U.S. post office operated on the island from 1940 to 1965.

This is a rather non-descript cover from Puerto Rico. I like it for the cruise ship emblem on the back -- interesting that this was sent airmail.

Anyone else have something to post?