Page 117 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

Ahmad a! Jabir, lo H.M. King Faisal I of Iraq; certainly it was a common-
sense move intended to speed the transmission of mails. It did not imply
any surrender of sovereignty on the part of Kuwait nor any acknowledge­
ment of Iraqi suzerainty over Kuwait. In any ease Iraq was still, at this
time, a British Mandated territory.

With this change in administration the Post Office moved out of
the Political Agency building and was established in a house immediately
behind it; it remained here throughout the period of Iraqi administration
until May 1941. The house had four rooms — two being for the residence
of the Postmaster and the Agency Mead Clerk, one for the Agency
Surgeon’s dispensary, and one for the Post Office.
From 1929 the overprints began to appear on Nasik printings
(Multi Star Wmk) of the Indian stamps. On the Anna values of both
Ordinary and Service sets the KUWAIT or KUWAIT SERVICE over­
prints were the same size as before but in thinner and clearer letters; on
the Rupee values both KUWAIT and KUWAIT SERVICE overprints
were in much larger letters. As before, the latter were not Indian Service
stamps with a Kuwait overprint (the Kuwait Service set included 3a.,
Rs5 and Rsl5 values which were not overprinted SERVICE for use in
India).
The Ordinary set originally ran from !4a. to Rs2, including both
colours of the 2a. (purple and vermilion). The 12a. appeared in 1933;
and, in 1934, the V£a;. la. 2a; and 4a. with ‘India Postage’ inscription
were overprinted. The same year saw the change in colour of the 3a.
from blue to carmine and an additional RslO value. The Service set
ran from la. to Rsl5 issued between 1929 and 1933, and included a I
12a. value not in the previous set.
In 1937 the remaining values in the Ordinary set were overprinted,
the 2a. (Small Die), 6a., Rs5 and Rsl5. Many values of both sets are
known with inverted watermarks but these varieties are not particularly •
scarce.
When the Nasik Security Press took over from De La Rue the
printing of the Indian KG V Rupee values, they laid down an unusual
plate of 96 stamps. At the top of the sheet were two panes (each 4 x 3),
in the centre were two panes (each 4 x 6) and at the bottom were two
more panes (each 4 x 3). The Kuwait overprints were done on such
sheets of R1, Rs2 and RslO.

116

: