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Postal Rates and Overland Mail Surcharges | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eastwards bounded rates from Cyprus Postage Rate Cyprus - Iraq (surface mail): (Date Format dd.mm.yyyy)
Surcharge for the use of Overland Mail
Extract from “Cyprus, 1353-1986": History, Postal History & Postage Stamps by Wilfrid T.F. Castle, Pages 167 & 168. Chapter XIV - "THE OVERLAND DESERT MAIL
The continued absence of an air mail service connecting Cyprus with the cities of the Levant coast and the Persian Gulf was felt less after the establishment of an excellent surface mail route in 1929. In fact it may be doubted, in view of the dilatory and expensive service which later air mail routes were to provide, whether the surface mail was not better handled by the service established in 1929 than at any later time, until the vast improvements of 1949-50.
The new service was known as the Desert Route or "Overland Desert Mail" and was achieved by the linking of Cyprus by the ordinary mail steamer with the Beyrouth extension of the overland desert motor service connecting Damascus with Baghdad (Service Transdesertique Syro Iraquien Damas - Bagdad) operated by the Nairn Eastern Transport Company. A label inscribed was required to by affixed to the envelope.
Postal facilities became available by the Desert Route for letters, postcards, printed papers, commercial papers and samples to and from Cyprus on Saturday, 1st June, 1929. The countries served were Iraq. North East Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Persia and North-West India. The transit time between Cyprus and Iraq by the Desert Route was six days as compared with sixteen days by the ordinary sea mail.
Letters for transmission from Cyprus to the Near East by the Desert Route were posted in any of the ordinary ways of posting, including Registered Post, but had to bear in the top lefthand corner an adhesive Desert Route label (obtainable free of charge at any Post Office in Cyprus) and Cyprus postage stamps to cover prepayment of postage at the appropriate rate with an additional fee of three piastres per ounce. The special fee was fixed by the Governor (exercising the powers vested in him by the Post Office Law of 1881) in an order dated 21st. May, 1929, and entitled "The Post Office Desert Route Rate of Postage Order, 1929".
The first information on thus route however was published in the Official Gazette No. 232, April 1, 1929.
OFFICIAL GAZETTE No. 232 - April 1, 1929 OFFICIAL GAZETTE NOTICE Overland Mail Service with Iraq The
Overland Mail Service has recently been reorganised and is now known as the
Syro-Iraq Transdesert Service or Service Transdesertique Syro-Iraquien. It
functions twice weekly in both directions, namely:
Mails are convoyed between Damascus and Haifa by rail in both directions.
All classes of correspondence, ordinary and registered, as well as ordinary
parcels, are permitted to the service. So far as correspondence is concerned,
a special fee in respect of the Overland Mail Service is no longer charged
and ordinary postage only is payable plus the usual fee for registration
when applicable. As regards parcels, revised rates of postage are indicated
below. The new service will, for the present, be the normal route for all
correspondence (but not parcels) addressed to Iraq, Persia, and India and no
special subscription on the covers is necessary. Parcels for transmission by
the desert service, must, however, be superscribed i the upper left-hand
portion of the cover and the label when one is used, with the words "Syro-Iraq
Trans-desert Service Damascus Baghdad" in bold characters and preferably in
red ink or red pencil.
The route was explained but surcharges were no longer required. This indicate that there must have been an earlier notice where the surcharge was implemented.
Extract of CYPRUS GAZETTE May 1929, Page 305
No. 378. ORDER OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT IN COUNCIL.— No. 1306. R. NICHOLSON, Administering the Government. In exercise of the powers vested in him by the Post Office Laws, 1881 and 1928, and otherwise, and with the advice of the Executive Council, His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government is pleased to order and it is hereby ordered as follows :—
1. This Order may be cited as the Post Office (Desert Route-Rate of Postage) Order, 1929, and shall come into force on the 1st day of June, 1929.
2. There shall be charged a special fee, payable in addition to ordinary postage, late or registration fees, on any kind of postal packet, that is, letters, postcards, printed papers and commercial papers and samples, intended for transmission by the Desert Route (Service Transdesertique Syro-Iraquien Damas-Bagdad), at the rate of 3cp per ounce or fraction thereof. Given under the hand and official seal of the Officer Administering the Government at H. MCLAUGHLAN,
Extract of CYPRUS GAZETTE May 1929, Page 305 Numerator Page 305 (Order No. 393)
No.
393. POST
OFFICE NOTICE.
2. A
packet intended for transmission by the Desert Route may be posted
in any of the ordinary ways of posting. It can be accepted for
registration at any Post Office ; but it cannot at present be
insured and, besides conforming to the ordinary postal regulations,
must:— (1)
bear in the top left-hand corner of the cover a Desert Route label;
3.—(1)
Desert Route labels may be obtained free of charge at any Post
Office. 4. The
latest times of posting postal packets intended for transmission by
the Desert Route can be ascertained by enquiry at any Post Office. 5. The
transit time by the Desert Route between Cyprus and Iraq is 6 days
as compared with 19 days by the ordinary sea route. 6.
Particulars of countries served and the fee payable are given
hereunder.
Very few Overland Mail covers from Cyprus are reported, most of them have some philatelic appearance, in any case, they are rare and only 7 are currently reported.
The sea link in this chain of rapid communication was by S.S. Bilbeis and S.S. Belkas; from Larnaca to Beyrouth and from Beyrouth to Famagusta, Letters arriving usually bore the Sea Post Office backstamps. On and from 17th October. 1930, the supplementary fee of 3 piastres per ounce, payable on packets intended for transmission by the Overland Desert Mail, was abolished, correspondence being forwarded on prepayment of the ordinary rates of postage only. |