Flag of Poland city of Maastricht used a similar design between 1938 and 1994 but reinstitated its old flag to avoid confusion. There are currently two independent states – Indonesia and Monaco – whose national flags are horizontal bicolors of red and white, reversing the Polish flag. The Monaco and Indonesia flags differ in proportions and shades of the colors (see Flag of Indonesia and Flag of Monaco). Flag of Poland The flag of Poland consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red. The two colors are defined in the Polish constitution as the
Flag of the East India Company English East India Company adopted a flag of thirteen red and white stripes with the flag of England in canton. It was reported that the number of stripes was chosen because many of the East India Company's shareholders were Freemasons, and the number thirteen is considered powerful in freemasonry. However, different reports gave varying initial numbers of stripes. The flag caused problems for the East India Company at first when trading in the Far East, because of its use of the St George's Cross. In Japan in 1616, the Company's ships were turned away because the cross on the flag