Russian and Dutch censors WWI

[Tony Walker]

At a society meeting the other evening a member showed me this cover (see attached), to one of the internee camps in The Netherlands in WWI, and asked why it had both Russian and Dutch censor marks.  I said there was only one place to find out....  so here it is !

The cover is as he has it written up at present

Cheers
Tony

[Nick Colley]

Quite odd, this one, I agree, Tony. I see from Google Maps that the distance from Zeist to Amersfoort is < or ca.10 kms. That makes the possibility I'm going to suggest seem unlikely, but it's the only one I can think of: ie is it a simple mis-sort? Apart from the Russian censor label, I see that the postmark on the reverse of (apparently) 28/9/16 is in Cyrillic script, so we can conclude it is Russian (which calendar would the Russians be using at that point? Was it still the Julian calendar). Can the date(s) of the Zeist postmarks under the Dutch label be determined?

To generate a detour of nearly 3600 kms (round trip) for a journey of only 10 kms or so would be quite an achievement.

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

Hi

This is well out of my comfort zone so I'm happy to be shot down in flames if you feel it necessary !

A far more simpler explanation is that the cover originated from Russia where it was censored prior to leaving that country as it was going to another country and was addressed to Zeist and then redirected to Amersford.  It looks as though it was censored by the Dutch authorities following redirection ? (the Dutch censor label appears to have been placed over the two Zeist postmarks - front and rear).

I must admit it would require and "interpretation" of the Russian date as well as the dates of the other postmarks to arrive at a sequence of events.

Mike  :D

[Tony Walker]

Thanks Nick

The new People's Republic adopted the Gregorian Calendar on Sunday 31 January 1918, and decreed that the next day would therefore be Thursday 14 February 1918.
This caused some confusion as you can imagine particularly with the peasantry who thought they had lost 13 days pay etc.

The cover is presently in an entry into a regional competition, so owner not able to check the date under the Dutch label, but as you say, it is an odd one

Cheers
Tony

[Nick Colley]

Ah-ha! Mike's suggestion sounds good to me. I was assuming (with no justification, really) that it was of military origin (no postage) => posted by a participant in the hostilities in Western Europe. However, the T mark would be in accord with it coming from a civilian origin (should have postage paid w/stamps), quite conceivably elsewhere, eg Russia. So if the Russian date is 28/9/16 Julian, then that would be, what, 11/10/16 Gregorian. When the owner gets the item back, if he reports the Zeist date(s) to be (significantly - it's a long way to travel through war-torn Europe) later than 11/10/16, then that would be strong support for Mike's suggestion, would it not?

chrs
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