尋回失落名字的國度｜太平洋島國瑙埃羅編寫日期｜2026/8/2

在南太平洋，除了大溪地（即法屬玻利尼西亞）外很難有我們熟悉的名字，但這個區域近年卻是中台兩岸政府外交角力的場所外更是中國與澳洲和美國惡鬥勢力的舞台，從每次不甚起眼的新聞不難發現中國每次都得嘗勝利，這或多或少是因為除了左傾的澳洲不斷退縮外南太平洋各國都短視地向錢看，今次要說的惱嚕便是教科書式案例之一。

The name Nauru believes that no one will remember them except the Taiwanese (translated as “Nauru, Republic of” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan)). This island is located slightly north of the South Pacific, now is the third smallest country in the world after the Vatican and Monaco.

Recover their traditional demonym｜From Nauru to Naoero

The national population, including residents living in Australia, is only little bit more than 10,000. She has administered by Germany,

惱嚕(Nauru)這個名字相信除了台灣人（台灣外交部翻譯作「諾魯共和國」）之外應該沒什麼人會記得他們了， 1 這個處於南太平洋稍北的島嶼在現今緊接梵帝岡和摩納哥之外是世界第三小國家，全國人口包括在澳洲生活的居民就僅有一萬多人左右。她經歷過德國、英國和澳洲的統治，在第二次世界大戰期間，自1942年8月26日正式被日本侵佔直到戰爭結束。戰後聯合國再次委托澳洲、紐西蘭和英國共同管理這個僅21平方千米的小島，最終在1968年1月31日獲得獨立。 雖然澳洲在惱嚕的僅有資源磷酸鹽吃相稍為難看，但由始至終澳洲和惱嚕無論是獨立前和後一直都關係密切，在磷酸鹽開採淨盡之後澳洲在當地建立難民營以暫時收容非法入境澳洲的外國人， 根據歷史記載，惱嚕第一枚郵票係以直接使用德屬馬紹爾群島郵票，當然之後有最經典的英國海馬高面值加蓋「惱嚕」郵票，這都是英國接管惱嚕後在1916至23年間發行。 According to historical records, the first stamp of Nauru was using German Marshall Islands stamps. Here is the classic British seahorse high-value overprinted with ‘NAURU’, which were issued between 1916 to 23 after Britain took over the Nauru. 我的僅有一幅由惱嚕寄出的集郵信封，這封郵件是一位愛爾蘭記者在周遊列國時順道寄的，他的正職雖然是記者但似乎收集明信片和到訪世界各國才是他的職業。 My only stamped envelope sent from Nauru, which was sent by an Irish journalist while travelling around the world. Although his full-time job is a journalist, it seems that collecting postcards and visiting countries around the world are his profession. 香港在上世紀80年代就已經是國際城市聯繫世界每一角落，上次我介紹過綠角群島的維多利亞港景緻小型張，惱嚕其實更早在1980年以惱嚕航空10週年紀念郵票和香港拉上關係。 In the 1980s, Hong Kong was already an international city connecting every corner of the world. I introduced the Cabo Verde souviner sheet issued on 1994 features Victoria Harbour, Nauru actually had a relationship with Hong Kong earlier in 1980 with commemorative stamps of the 10th anniversary of Air Nauru. 作為換取澳洲實則援助的代價。惟問題就在這裡了，惱嚕在開採磷酸鹽的風光日子並未有為將來一旦礦藏枯竭後儲蓄又或嘗試投資其他產業，以致在近年的日子需要靠澳洲的援助。然而，其實澳洲援助惱嚕尚算合理，畢竟取之於惱嚕用之於惱嚕，但澳洲的援助也有終止的一天，而惱嚕便不時以政治事件換取邦交國援助也是很難看的食相，就例如2019年因澳洲關閉惱嚕難民營失去澳洲援助要向中華民國（台灣）乞討援助便是經典的例子，結果是台灣方面予以拒絕令中國以強大資金掠奪台灣與惱嚕的外交關係，間接令中國在南太平洋建立的後花園更趨完整。 我覺得惱嚕這個國家真的是「鳥不生蛋」的地方，莫說是經濟投資和旅遊，甚至其郵票也沒什麼趣味性可言。但我首先想講明用「鳥不生蛋」形容惱嚕並不確切，因為磷酸鹽正正就是由鳥糞日積月累下經過千年演化而成，而惱嚕也是因為其地理位置處於太平洋的中心，也成為以海為居的太平洋海鳥休息地。祗是要去惱嚕卻是十分轉折，除了有直航貨運航綫是連接澳洲外，其他客運航綫僅飛往南太平洋其他國家，也就是說不論是商務或者旅遊觀光，從歐洲出發也要乘搭3至4個航段，但以這個21平方千米的沒什麼奇特地理特徵小島而言，除了為去完全球每一個角落的人外對任何人都無吸引的理由去那處。 除開他們向不同的國家以條件換取援助的事，惱嚕在國際社會完全無任何影響力，國際新聞從來都沒有他們一席位。2026年5月13日，惱嚕的國會通過草案擬以傳統瑙埃羅語的名字瑙埃羅(Naoero)取代由英國人以「難以發音」為理由命名的惱嚕英文名稱「Nauru」。當地總統擬稍後對國名更換進行全民公投，惟至7月29日卻以「身份認同」為理由直接更換國家名稱為瑙埃羅共和國(Republic of Naoero)，同時向聯合國報備。 其實惱嚕的官方郵政服務惱嚕郵政(Nauru Post)正式名稱早在數年前就改稱瑙埃羅郵政服務公司(Naoero Postal Service Corporation)，在寄出的郵件上也可以找到用這個名字的郵戳，惟至2026年1月發行的《惱嚕人從楚克回歸80週年》(80th Anniversary of Nauruan Return from Chuuk)郵票仍然標註惱嚕「Nauru」的國家名稱以至惱嚕人(Nauruan)的稱呼，這亦是最後一枚印有惱嚕為國名的郵票；7月發行的《磷酸鹽礦移交21週年》(21st Anniversary of Ronphos Handover)郵票上國家終於改成瑙埃羅「Naoero」。

Britain and Australia separately. During World War II, she occupied by Japan from August 26, 1942 until the end of the war. After the war, the United Nations once again entrusted Australia,

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New Zealand and the United Kingdom to jointly manage this 21 square kilometres small island, and finally gained independence on January 31, 1968.

Although the business of phosphate in Nauru is not a good look, Australia and Nauru always had a close relationship from the beginning to nowadays, both before and after independence. After the phosphate mining was exhausted, Australia established a local refugee camp to temporarily accommodate foreigners who entered Australia illegally in exchange for Australia’s actual assistance.

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But the problem is when phosphate mining days they have not saved or tried to invest in other industries in the future if the mineral deposits are exhausted, so it needs Australian assistance in recent years. However, in fact Australia pay the aid to Nauru is still reasonable. As it is taken from Nauru and used for Nauru, but aid of Australia will be terminated one day, and it is also greedy for Nauru to exchange political events for aid from diplomatic relations from time to time.

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For example in 2019, Australia close the Nauru refugee camp that caysed Nauru lost aid from Australia, Nauru turn to ask mony from the Republic of China (Taiwan) begging for help. As a result Taiwan refused it and China plunder the diplomatic relations of Taiwan and Nauru with powerful funds, which indirectly made China’s back garden in the South Pacific more complete.

I think Nauru is really a place where “in the middle of nowhere”. Not to mention economic investment and tourism, even its stamps are not interesting. But first of all, I would like to say that it is not accurate to describe Nauru as “in the middle of nowhere”, because phosphate is evolved from bird droppings accumulated over time for thousands of years, and Nauru is also a resting place for Pacific seabirds because of its geographical location in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. Anyway only some quite complicate routes to Nauru, except direct cargo frights connecting Australia, other passenger routes only fly to other South Pacific countries. That is to say, whether it is business or tourism, you have to take 3 to 4 flight segments from Europe, but there is no strange geographical features in this 21 square kilometre. As far as the island is concerned, there is no reason to attract anyone to go there except for people who go to every corner of the ball.

Except for their conditional aid from different countries, Nauru has no influence in the international community, and they have never had a seat in the international press. On May 13, 2026, the Congress of Nanlu passed a draft to replace the English name Nauru named by the British on the grounds of ‘difficult to pronounce’ with the traditional Naoero name Naoero. The local president planned to hold a referendum on the change of national name later, but on July 29 he directly changed the name of the country to the ‘Republic of Naoero’ on the self-identity and reported to the United Nations at the same time.

In fact, the Nauru’s official postal service Nauru Post, was changed to Naoero Postal Service Corporation as their formal name in several years ago. The postmark with this name can also be found on the mail sent, but the latest stamp ‘80th Anniversary of Nauruan Return from Chuuk’ issued in 2026 still marked as Nauru. On July 2026, the first stamp bearing new country name ‘Naoero’ was issued for 21st Anniversary of Ronphos Handover.

由上至下｜1 1973年發行的惱嚕本地工藝郵票，可以看到那些製成品頗為原始，與相近的密克羅尼西亞群島相類似，底圖的地圖明確標示惱嚕在地球的位置；2 1968年印行的獨立紀念郵票，係由澳洲政府援助印刷，多年後澳洲再度出資，為東帝汶印刷獨立紀念郵票；3 如同不少南太平洋國家，惱嚕也在澳洲投資作為他們在這些大國後援基地，位於墨爾本的惱嚕大廈在1977年落成使用；4 2019年中華民國（台灣）總統蔡英文展開以「海洋民主之旅」為名的南太平洋島國訪問行程，惱嚕曾為此發行郵票，惟同年與中共建交後郵票在整個惱嚕突然消失。

From top to bottom｜1 The local artcraft stamp issued in 1973 shows those local products are quite primitive and similar to Micronesia Islands. The map on the bottom clearly indicates the position of Nauru on the earth. 2 The independent commemorative stamps printed in 1968 were supported by the Australian government. Many years later, Australia invested again to print independent commemorative stamps for Timor-Leste. 3 Like many South Pacific countries, Nauru also invested in Australia as their support base in these major countries, the Nauru House in Melbourne was completed and used in 1977. 4 In 2019, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Tsai Ing-wen launched a visit to the South Pacific countries in the name of ‘Oceans of Democracy’, Nauru issued a stamp for this purpose, but after the diplomatic relations with China in the same year, the stamps suddenly disappeared throughout Nauru.