Page 130 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

The majority of the covers arc addressed to Bombay (mostly to
Rashid Abdul Gafoor, a Kuwaiti who had been exiled to Bombay for his
part in an insurrection in Kuwait in 1938; or to Ali Hamood Shaya);
but covers to Karachi cover the same time span. Almost all of them carry
a Bahrain transit date-stamp, though it is often wholly or partly hidden
beneath the Censorship sealing label. Some, but not all, of the covers
sent in late June and early July also bear a small violet mark
‘POLITICAL AGENCY KUWAIT which is also sometimes hidden
beneath the label; this was certainly not a despatched mark, for the
letters on which it appears did not originate in the Agency.

It was previously thought that the Bahrain transit date-stamp
indicated that these letters had been sent to Bahrain specifically for
censorship; but it has since been established beyond doubt that, in
every case, censorship was done on arrival in Bombay or in Karachi (as
was the case with mail from other Gulf ports). The Censorship sealing
label is invariably ‘tied’ to the cover with a triangular numbered censor
mark prefixed ‘C’ (Bombay) or ‘B’ (Karachi). The only cover recorded
to a destination other than India bears the Type 10 cancellation dated
23.9.41, was censored in Karachi and reached its destination in
California on 8.1.42!
The reason why these letters were sent to Bahrain was simply to
get them into normal mail despatches. The Bahrain date-stamp was
applied as the customary transit mark; and the fact that it was some­
times covered by the Censor’s label after subsequent censorship in
Bombay or Karachi was quite fortuitous.
Prior to May 1941 Kuwait had been a sub-office of Basra and mail
for Bombay and Karachi had been routed through that port. With the
removal by the Iraqi Postmaster of all the Post Office equipment and
the suspension of the Kuwait-Basra service in May, it seems likely that
Kuwait became, temporarily, a sub-office of Bahrain.

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