Joint GWAV & CBFA Meeting 2010, Part III

The second day of the joint GWAV & CBFA meeting took place at the historic West Virginia McLure Hotel in downtown Wheeling. The McLure Hotel opened for business on the 100 years after the birth of Betsy Ross in 1852. This hotel has bunked presidents, civil war generals, and many a famous West Virginian.

During the Civil War William Rosecrans drafted it for his HQ. Joseph McCarthy gave his infamous, 'list of Communist sympathizers' speech at this location. Previous guests include Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Marilin Monroe.

South Pacific Nation with British Union Flags
Australia - Fiji - New Zealand - Tuvalu

The first presentation of Sunday, November 14, 2010 was entitled The New Zealand Flag Controversy. It was given by William Belanich, Jr. An interesting flag that Belanich showed us was the proposed design that includes NZ that mirrors the current design.

Belanich spoke about the Aaron Nicholson Flag -
my favorite - that was designed in 2000 and recently had
a Native Kiwi cloud design added on the bottom in 2009

Belanich gave us an over view of the efforts to change the New Zealand flag. There are four nations in the South Pacific that still retain the British Union Flag in their national flag - Australia, Fiji, Tuvalu, and New Zealand. Which one will permanently abandon the British Flag? Tuvalu briefly broke the British South Pacific Flag cadence in the 1990s but later reverted to the UK sky blue design. Perhaps New Zealand and Australia would do the same?

I suppose if Scotland ever gets the gumption to separate from the United Kingdom, then that could solidify the South Pacific UK flags or push them to change their flag?


For one year, 1996-1997 Tuvalu
abandoned the British Flag but later
regretted the decision and returned
to the sky blue flag