Surtax for the Christian Military Association (Chr. Militaire Tehuizen)

On 1 April 1935 the postal administration of the Netherlands Indies issued a set of four bi-coloured semi-postal stamps whose surtax went to the Indies Committee of the Christian Military Association for the East and West Indies (Christelijke Militaire Tehuizen — Christian Military Homes). The stamps were valid for postage until 31 January 1936. Designs by F. A. Wagner were printed in photogravure by Joh. Enschedé (Haarlem), line perforation 12½, size about 22 × 36 mm, without watermark.

The four military scenes climb in face value: a pioneer (military engineer) at work (2 + 1 c, violet and sepia); a cavalryman rescuing a wounded native (5 + 2½ c, green and sepia); an artilleryman under fire (12½ + 2½ c, orange and sepia); and a bugler sounding the call (15 + 5 c, blue and sepia). Each stamp carries the colonial heading «Nederlandsch-Indië» and the charity legend for the Christian Military Homes. Scott catalogues the set as B21–B24; Michel as 230–233.

Relationship to Scouting. This is not an official Scout postal issue. The beneficiary was a Christian military welfare organisation that ran homes (tehuizen) for soldiers of the Royal Netherlands Indies Army (KNIL), not the colonial Scout association (Nederlandsch-Indische Padvindersbond / related bodies). Domfil does not list the set under Scout numbers. It enters Scout thematic collections for a classic reason of design: the high value shows an army bugler — the same reveille motif that Scout catalogues index on many military and youth stamps (compare Romania 1935, Domfil 935.6). The low value’s «pioneer» is a military pioneer, not a Scout rank, but the word has long invited album cross-references. True Scout postage from the Indies followed two years later: the May 1937 semi-postals for the V World Scout Jamboree in the Netherlands (Scott B30–B31), with surtax for the local Scout association.

In short, 1935 B21–B24 is a military-charity semi-postal of the colonial Indies; its place in a Scouts-on-Stamps album is thematic (bugler / youth-military imagery and sheet tradition), not organisational.