Censored Covers From Australia Post WW2

[Gary Diffen]

I have attached scans of a series of Australian covers posted after WW2 to European and Middle East countries which have censor labels attached. Insome of these that I own, there were periodic conflicts....so the censor labels make sense. However, with this group, I was wondering if there was continued censorship with some country's because of underlying conflict.


I will list the covers in order of the scans:


1. Australia 29.11.1949 to Sudan. Arabic censor at left. Arrival 31.12.1949.
2. Melbourne 24.6.1953 to Egypt. Arabic censor label at left.
3. New South Wales 2.6.1948 to Cyprus. Arabic censr label at left.


The above three covers were almost certainly processed through Egypt before onwards transmission. With the Arabic censor labels, was Egypt still censoring mail?


4. Sydney, NSW 18.5.1950 to Austria. Censor label and cachet at left.
5. NSW 2.1.1959 to Czechoslovakia with censor label and cachet at left.
6. Queensland 24.7.1958 to Israel with censor label at left and cachet on reverse.


Are my assumptions correct in that these country's had ongoing censorship after WW2?....and if so, what was the period of this censorship? What other country's had this type of censorship?


Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

[Ross Debenham]

I suggest that the first 3 covers were censored because of the Arab-Israeli conflict that was raging in the Middle East at the time.

[Nick Colley]

The Egyptians were vigorously anti-British at least until British forces left - in 1955, I think? This national sense had many violent expressions (on both sides). See, for example pp 141-146 of 'Lords of the Desert' by James Barr, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4711-3979-6 (a very good account of Anglo-American power politics in the Middle East, 1942-1968). I wonder if this had any bearing on the Egyptian inspection of mail - even if it was not of British origin?

Just a thought.

chrs
N

[Gary Diffen]

Hi folks

I believe the Egyptians were censoring everything that was forwarded through their PO....but have no one to back up my theory.

I believe the Allies were still censoruing German and Austrian mail in to the early 1950's....

Cheers

Gary

[Ross Debenham]

I  believe you are pretty right there Gary, as I have seen mails censored to places that had nothing to do with the conflict.