Page 33 - CONGOLATRES-AOUT-2020

Les Congolâtres
Les deux lettres éthiopiennes
suivantes d'Addis-Abeba
étaient marquées "Whole Air
Route", elles ont donc été
envoyées à Khartoum et ont
reçu des cachets de transit de
courrier recommandé. Elles
ont survolé sur une partie de
la route au-dessus de la région
d'Aba sans s'arrêter jusqu'à
Elisabethville, la ville
principale du sud du Congo
Belge. Il s'agissait du bureau
de censure du courrier entrant
et sortant d'Afrique australe et
avait donc un vol direct depuis
Khartoum.
The next two Addis Ababa
Ethiopian covers were marked
‘Whole Air Route’ so they
were sent to Khartoum and
received registered mail
transit cancels. They were
flown part of the route over
the Aba area without stopping
until reaching Elizabethville
the major town in southern
Belgian Congo. It was the
station for censoring
incoming and outgoing mail
to and from Southern Africa
and therefore had a direct
flight from Khartoum.
Figure 11
The 8 June, 1943 cover (figure 11)
bears a Sudan censor tape type 4 No.
40. The 1 April 1943 cover (figure 12)
has a Sudan censor tape type 5 No. 31.
Both covers have Elizabethville
receiving cancels. These are the only
covers I have seen with Sudan censor
tapes types 4 and 5 travelling through
Aba. I would expect these two censor
types to exist on covers sent from
Eastern Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia
west towards the Nile route through
Aba albeit an unusual usage. 4
Figure 12
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