Page 202 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

IMPROPER USAGE

‘Value Only’ 5NP and 15NP (and, possibly, other low denomina­
tions) arc occasionally found with a large hexagonal cancellation struck
in purple and inscribed in English and Arabic ‘FUJEIRA’. The date is
usually August 1964, and these stamps come from covers in which
notices of the forthcoming issue of Fujeira ‘stamps’ were sent out to
philatelic publishers.
The use of this cancellation on these stamps was quite improper,
as ‘Value Only’ stamps were never supplied to Fujeira nor was there
ever a British Postal Agency there. In fact, at this time, the Fujeira
‘postal service’ consisted of nothing more than a rented Post Office
Box in Dubai Post Office! The majority of these covers went into the
mails at Abu Dhabi, and the stamps should have been cancelled there.

FORCES MAIL

‘Value Only’ stamps may be found with British F.P.O. cancella­
tions at least between 1950 and 1956 : the F.P.O. 171 date-stamp is
illustrated under BAHRAIN in Part I (F.P.O. 756 was similar), and
F.P.O. 518 under BAHRAIN (Type 41) in Part II.
Covers bearing ‘Value Only’ stamps cancelled F.P.O. 518 are
known to have originated in Sharjah where, certainly in 1953, a small
stock of these stamps was available at a Services Post Office.

Sharjah was at this time principally an RAF Station, but was
also the HQ of the Trucial Oman Scouts. So far as the RAF was
concerned Sharjah was at first administered from Iraq (as was RAF
Bahrain originally), but the RAF HQ for the Gulf was established in
Bahrain in 1953 and Sharjah then came under Bahrain.
The F.P.O. 756 date-stamp is known in 1950 on a ‘Value Only’
KG VI 3a., and F.P.O. 171 in 1951 on a ‘Value Only’ Silver Wedding
2!4a. It seems likely that, prior to 1953, RAF Sharjah mail was sent
direct to Habbaniyah (F.P.O. 171) or to Shaibah (F.P.O. 756), as had
been the case with Bahrain Services mail from mid-1946 until F.P.O.
518 was established there in late 1948 or early 1949.

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