Censorship from Aden - March 1950

[Neil Williams]

This Concession rate mail is cancelled at Aden on 21 March 1950. Scans of front and back attached. I note the initials on the tape, and that the edge of the tape is 'rucked' by the blue crayon of 'Passed'.

I know of no reason related to Aden why it would have been censored.

Would be most grateful for any help or suggestions!

Neil Williams

[Michael Dobbs]

Neil

Are your sure that it is 1950?  It doesn't look like a perfect 'zero' to me.  I immediately think of the Suez crisis in 1956.  Marc Parren in his draft publication on Suez states "In the event of military operations being undertaken in the Eastern Mediterranean it was felt necessary to impose civil censorship in Aden, Cyprus and Malta."  Could the year, in fact, be '56' ?

Mike  :)

[Alan Baker]

I agree the date is not clear, but the cover bears a 2.5a stamp (SG No 21). New currency was introduced in 1951 (100c = 1s) and surcharged stamps were issued in October that year.

QEII stamps were issued from 1953.

[Neil Williams]

The postmark is indeed smudged and the scan had to be low resolution, but I can confirm it is an Aden GPO Proud type D51 21 MAR 50 and timed at 10-AM. Anna denominated stamps were invalidated on 1 Oct 51.

The tape is not a type I have seen used in Aden during WWII - and I have never seen civil or military censorship from Aden after 1945!

I have trawled my bookshelf and can see no reason for censorship in Aden at this time.

I see a number of possibilities, of which I fear the last is most probable!:

The sender was somewhere 'unusual' at the time, and had to have his mail censored. His correspondence address is not necessarily where he was when writing the letter.

There was some form of local activity such as an exercise.

It's censored somewhere in transit between Aden and the UK. (Egypt, Malta, Gib ...)

It's some form of 'in joke' by the sender

It's a subsequent fabrication....




Neil W

[Alan Baker]

Anything to do with the build up of tension leading to the Korean War?

[Nick Colley]

Well, I note the blue crayon word is mis-spelt - it says Passd, not Passed. The handwriting does not look particularly British to me. And finally, I have in my custody some fake RAF censors from Gibraltar with blue crayon endorsements in what appears to be a continental style of handwriting.

In conclusion, I'd say that, based on what we can see so far, it's the last and least palatable of Neil's possibilities: a subsequent fabrication.

Sorry I can't contribute a positive spin  :(

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

Nick

Thanks for that - caused me to re-think - on the back of the cover on the PASSED BY CENSOR label there are the initials E.H.T.
If these are the initials of the censor then I would expect them to be in the same colour as the wording "PASSD" ? They are not.

Also the censor label is on the side - is the side on which the label has been placed slit ?
I would have thought so, if the censor was re-sealing the cover - also I would have thought the recipient would have opened it along this side with slit sealed with the label, rather than roughly opening it along the top.

I am inclind to consider it to be a faked censored cover.

Mike  :)

[Neil Williams]

Thanks all.

They did indeed slit the envelop under the tape, and it's not unusual for the recipient to open the envelop away from the tape (thank goodness, for collectors of such things!)

The comment about 'PASSD' hits the nail for me. Closer inspection now shows the top of the A to have been added as a separate stroke and something odd happens with the lower part of the SS.

Either a joke or a forgery.....consigned to my (small) collection of philatelic horrors! Probably worth what I paid for it!

Neil W