Description
WWI enemy mail transited by the Allies: 2 Oct 1916 postmarked cover sent from JERUSALEM to NEW YORK, franked 1.10 Piastre per period 20g letter rate abroad using 2x 1915 1st series war overprinted stamps & tied by JERUSALEM-2 octogonal postmark; the cover may have been sent northwards by rail where subsequently tied by BEIRUT star & crescent censor handstamp. As of 5 Nov. 1914 Britain and Turkey were in a state of war: this cover was likely carried as a sealed mail on a neutral ship passing through Britain in transit and here this cover was subject to censorship, a rare ocurrence for mail from an enemy country and this type of mail rarely transited Britain. The cover was opened & sealed by censor #4498 & locally re-routed in the US to the tiny local of Alder Creek in upstate New York. Torn open at left but complete. The Zvi Alexander collection contains a similar, more tatty cover - but the significance of its routing has been overlooked.
Wartime mail to and from the US had originally been exempt from censorship by the British but this changed in May 1915 with the issuance of a warrant allowing the British censor to inspect such mail; the Americans protested and future mail shipments avoided the British Isles, but some mail nevertheless continued transiting through the UK and was censored.
