Another one

[Nick Colley]

No one else seems to be posting today, so you can have two from me.

This is from a civilian (apparently), but the return address is c/o HM Naval Office, Colombo. This is an interesting air mail rate, 6 Rupees, when the normal rate at this time (1940-41) seems to have been 1 Rupee. I think 1 Rupee was equivalent to 1/3d, so 6 Rs would be 7/6d. The routing endorsement is via Chungking, so it would probably have gone via Hong Kong, then by the Pan Am China Clipper trans-Pacific to the US. How much further it went by air can't really be readily determined, but for 7/6d, I'd want it to go all the way: trans-US, trans-Atlantic (to Lisbon?) and thence to the UK. Sadly it has no transit marks. The deletion of the air mail etiquette is odd, and suggests it did NOT go all the way by air, but we don't know where the deletion was applied.

Are any of you air mail experts who can cast some light here?

chrs
N