Page 33 - DILMUN 11

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In the 1920s, as was also the ease at Dubai,
letters were occasionally posted on board ship and
the stamps were cancelled on arrival at Bombay I
jh i /#$ with a double-ring c.d.s. PERSIAN GULF SEC­
FT TION, BOMBAY G.P.O.
From 1923 the Nairn brothers operated their
overland routes which carried mail from Baghdad I
Tl ^ D- to Damascus, Beirut and Haifa (and, thence, by
train to Port Said). Such mail usually bore a cachet,
applied by the Post Office in red or violet, I
'‘OVERLAND MAIL/BAGHDAD HAIFA” :
and covers from Bahrain may occasionally also be
seen with a similar inscription in manuscript. i
The Imperial Airways service between Cairo
A registered cover of 190S : the stomps on the reverse and Basrah was opened in 1927 and covers from
(Edward VII, three I anna and one 1: anna) are cancelled Bahrain — sent by sea up the Gulf — bear the blue
with Type 4. cachet “BASRAH — CAIRO/AIRMAIL”. The II
service was extended to Karachi in April 1929.
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The BY AIR in doable circle cachet was used on air mail
A registered cover of 1912 : the stamps on the reverse covers sent from Bahrain between 1928 and 1936.
(Edward VII, 3 annas and V2 anna) are cancelled with
Type 4. Flights to Karachi originally followed the Per­
sian Coast, but were changed to the Arabian side
in October 1932. First flight covers were post­
Apart from the philatelic aspect, these two cov­ marked in London (postage 6d.) on October 1st or
ers are extremely interesting because they bear, Baghdad (postage 28 fils) on October 5th, and
above the address, the Arabic figures “8642” back-stamped on arrival in Bahrain on October
(indicated by arrows). The figures may often be 7th or 8th. The official return flight to London left
found inscribed on covers from Moslem countries Bahrain (postage 8V2 Annas) on November 2nd; :
— more usually in the last century, for the practice but there had been at least one earlier despatch of
has virtually died out. These figures are the numer­ air mail westwards from Bahrain, 17 covers having !
ical equivalents of the letters forming the Arabic been sent by the first flight to Greece on October ;
word “BEDUH” (“e” being short, and having no 5th (back-stamped at Athens on October 10th).
value), a mystic word, used as an invocation for the By this same flight, covers were despatched to
safe arrival of the letter on which it appears. England (received October 13th) and to South
Covers from the period 1914- 1918 may be Africa (received October 17th).
found with a small double circle violet hand-stamp In subsequent years, the extension of Imperial
“PASSED CENSOR. BOMBAY” with number Airways’ Far East routes saw the frequent
in the centre, though its use appears to have been despatch and receipt of first flight covers, some of
somewhat infrequent. which are by no means common : from Rangoon

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