Page 125 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

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Genuine Forgery
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4 Crude hand-stamped forged overprints on used Indian stamps exist
on all values except Rsl 5. Those on the Rupee values may be readily
recognised, being only 16mm. long instead of the genuine 18!6mm.
The forgers also created a bogue Rs25: and KUWAIT SERVICE over­
prints on the Indian KG VI R1 and Rs5. Indian KG VI stamps were not
overprinted for Service use in Kuwait, nor were Indian Service stamps
used there.
When World War II broke out in 1939 there was little immediate
effect in Kuwait, except that in October the U.K. air mail rates were
increased to 8!6a., 14a. and 1916a.; in 1941 they were again increased
to 16a. and 2216a., but the following year reverted to 14a. Indeed, even
as late as January 1941 it was still possible to send a registered letter to
England by “Overland Mail" for 6a. In April 1941, however, the
Rashid AJi rebellion in Iraq and the subsequent landings by Allied
■>\
Forces had startling repercussions on the postal affairs of Kuwait.
THE WAR-TIME EXPERIMENTAL POST OFFICE

About the end of April the Iraqi Postmaster, Abdul Karim Hussain,
called on the Political Agent and announced that as Britain and Iraq were
now “at war” he and his clerk had closed the Post Office and were
returning to Basra. It later transpired that they took with them all the
cancellers (Types 5-8) and, probably, the whole stock of stamps!
It has been possible to date this incident fairly accurately by an
examination of covers sent to the U.K. from Kuwait during April. A
letter sent on the 7th received the normal Basra back-stamp on the 11th;
but another, sent on the 15th, was back-stamped on the 16th and was
opened by the Censor in Basra. The last cover was sent on the 28th and

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