Page 203 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

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PAR AVION

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P**itJ;h I'oroen in Ir't
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Registered R.A.F. Sharjah mail is known sent in 1948
through nearby Dubai Post Office.

Once RAF Sharjah came under the administration of RAF Bahrain,
this practice ceased and Services mail from Sharjah was sent to
Bahrain on the thrice-a-fortnight Pembroke aircraft, and the ‘Value
Only’ stamps were cancelled at Bahrain (F.P.O. 518). This arrangement
probably only lasted a short time as F.P.O. 936 was later established at
Sharjah.
The Sendees Post Office in Sharjah which stocked ‘Value Only’
stamps in 1953 is said to have cancelled registered mail and. if it was a
full F.P.O., it seems strange that it did not also cancel ordinary' mail.
During the period 1954-56 the Trucial Oman Scouts HQ in
Sharjah used unoverprinted G.B. stamps on mail which was either sent
to the F.P.O. (551?) in Bahrain or was handed over to the Political
Agent’s Office for despatch. The handling of RAF Sharjah mail at
this time is uncertain; but it also seems strange that Bahrain continued
to use overprinted stamps on Sendees Mail until 1958, whereas the
latest recorded use of ‘Value Only' stamps from Sharjah is Oct<9th, 1956.

A cover from RAF Sharjah in 1958 bore ‘Value Only stamps
cancelled at Dubai.

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