FLAG 



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FLAG 



the plain red flags which they carried. How- 

 ever this may be, the crescent is certainly 

 Byzantine in its origin, whereas the star's 

 meaning is unknown. According to one account 



it was a part of the arms of Richard I of Eng- 

 land and stood for the star of Bethlehem; 

 according to others it is Al Tarek, the star 

 of piercing brightness mentioned in the Koran. 



Flags of Central and South America 



Unlike the flags of other parts of the world, 

 those of the Central and South American 

 countries are mostly without historical or 

 legendary background. Some of them were 

 frankly copied from the United States or Euro- 

 pean flags, and others seem to have been 

 chosen because somebody in authority thought 

 they were prettj 7 . Chile, Cuba and Panama 

 show the influence of the United States flag, 

 and Salvador has an obvious copy. Paraguay 

 simply adopted the Dutch colors, to which it 

 added a distinctive badge. Many of the flags, 

 however, including those of Argentina, Bolivia, 

 Guatemala, Honduras and Peru, have no dis- 

 tinction; they seem to be the national colors 

 for no particular reason. 



Brazil. This country's flag is an exception 

 to the rule for Central and South America. 

 The lozenge-shaped mass of yellow is unique, 

 and it is one of the few flags to show a motto. 

 On the band encircling the sphere are the words 

 Ordem e progresso, meaning order and progress. 



Costa Rica. The blue, white and red of this 



little country's flag seem to be taken from 

 the colors of the United States, but the 

 arrangement of the stripes, with a broad band 

 of red in the center, is unusual. 



Dominican Republic. This flag, of red, 

 white and blue, is of an unusual design. A 

 white cross of Saint George divides the field 

 into four cantons, the first and fourth being 

 blue, the second and third, red. 



Mexico. The Mexican flag has three ver- 

 tical bars, green, white and red. It is exactly 

 like the Italian flag, except that the latter 

 bears the arms of the House of Savoy in the 

 center of the white stripe. Mexico adopted 

 the Italian flag because it looked pretty, in 

 spite of Italy's protests. When Mexico refused 

 to abandon its new colors, the Italians changed 

 their flag by adding the royal arms. 



Uruguay. Uruguay's flag is like that of 

 Greece, except that the order of the bars in the 

 field is reversed, and the canton shows a sun 

 "in splendor," whereas the Greek canton bears 

 a white Greek cross on a blue ground. 



Flags of Asia 



China. Until 1912 the Chinese flag bore a 

 silver dragon on a yellow or golden field. With 

 the formation of the republic, however, this 

 symbol of the ancient monarchy was abolished 

 and a new flag adopted. It consists of five 

 broad horizontal bands of color, in order from 

 top to bottom, crimson, yellow, blue, white 

 and black. These colors symbolize the five 

 races or five divisions of the republic; crimson 

 is for the Chinese proper; yellow, for the Man- 

 churians; blue, for the Mongolians; white, for 

 the Tibetans; and black, for the Moham- 

 medans (Turkestan). This is the national flag, 

 and is also used by the merchant marine. 



Japan. The Japanese flags in their present 

 form date only from 1897, but the designs, 

 with only a little change, have been used for 

 centuries. Appropriately enough this "land of 

 the rising sun" uses a representation of the sun 

 on its flag. The merchant flag shows only a 

 red disk on a white field, but on the imperial 

 navy's flag broad bands of red, like rays of 

 the sun, radiate from the central disk. The 



imperial standard, a conventionalized golden 

 chrysanthemum on a red field, is almost equally 

 well known. 



Siam. The "land of the white elephant" 

 this country is called, and the national flag 

 displays a white elephant in the center of 

 a plain red field. The royal standard is the 

 same, except that the elephant wears his harness 

 and trappings and is standing on a platform, 

 and in the upper corner, next to the hoist, 

 is an anchor and- wheel. (For the legend of 

 the white elephant, and the veneration in which 

 it is held, see SIAM.) 



Persia. The flag of Persia is a "symphony 

 in color," with its equal horizontal bars of 

 green, white and pink. On the standard the 

 green and pink bands are narrowed into bor- 

 ders, and on the wide, white central field is 

 displayed a lion holding a sword. Above its 

 back shows a blazing sun. B.M.W. 



Consult Campbell's Our Flag, or The Evolution 

 of the Stars and Stripes; Gordon's The Flags of 

 the World. 



