Page 83 - The Postal Agencies in Eastern Arabia

connection with Dubai.
There arc, however, facts which almost certainly show that, even
though these Experimental P.Os may have been connected with the up­
grading of Dubai P.O., it was virtually impossible that either canceller
was used in Dubai.

So far as K-77 is concerned, only two covers arc known, one
addressed to Bombay and the other to the U.K.: the former is date-
stamped 9.5.41 and back-stamped Bombay Delivery 12.5.41. No letter
ever travelled from Sharjah, or even from Dubai, by sea within a
period of three days, and it seems unlikely that it was sent by air in
wartime.

No less than 23 covers addressed to Karachi between 22.11.41
and 16.6.42 and three addressed to Bombay in March, 1942, on which
the stamps were cancelled Experimental P.O. K-46, have been examined.
All were censored on arrival in Karachi and, almost without excep­
tion, all show the same pattern of dates. In the case of the Karachi
mail, except where a Sunday or a Public Holiday intervened, the
delivery date is the day following the date of the K-46 cancellation;
and in the case of those addressed to Bombay, the delivery date is
5-6 days later.

mm

'■ V.:*' r( i
1:
f i°r-f . ..

j;

If the K—46 cancellation had been applied in Dubai it would be
possible for letters to have been delivered to Bombay in 5—6 days only
if they had been carried by air to Karachi for censorship and then
carried on to Bombay by air — a highly unlikely procedure for civilian

82