The aim of the Empire Air Mail Scheme (EAMS) was to provide regular connections between the countries of the British Empire at the very low postal rate of 1½d per half oz.
As this was an all-up service, an air mail label was not needed.
The first stage of the EAMS between the UK and South Africa started on 29 June 1937. That was commemorated by special labels produced at the London Stamp Exhibition.
The second stage to Singapore started on 23 February 1938.
The third stage to Australia and New Zealand started on 26 July 1938. From that date all first class mail leaving New Zealand for Empire countries was part of the Empire Air Mail Scheme.
Short S23 Empire Flying Boats had been introduced to handle the
increased postal load generated by the scheme with the first flight
from Sydney on 5 July.
The Sydney to Singapore leg was operated by Qantas with the rest
of the journey by Imperial Airways.
The New Zealand to Australia leg was still by sea.
From New Zealand
The last mail by sea from New Zealand to the United Kingdom left on 25 July and arrived in London on 18 August. From 26 July, mail was accumulated in New Zealand. It was sent to Sydney from Wellington on 4 August and from Auckland on 5 August and flown from Sydney on 9 August arriving in the UK on 19 August.
Despite the fact that the flight from Australia on 9 August was the first in the new thrice weekly service, the mail was not backstamped on arrival in the UK.
The chief pilot was G U (Scotty) Allan, famous for his part in the first all-Australian airmail to the UK in 1931 and as Ulm's co-pilot in the first trans-Tasman airmail in February 1934.
A 1½d value of the George VI definitives was issued on 26 July 1938 for this new service. First day covers are shown.
This cover is addressed to Alexandria.
While the first flight arrived in Alexandria on 17 August, the cover
is backstamped on 21 August.
It appears that the quantity of mail posted for the first flight was so large
that some of the mail was offloaded between Singapore and Karach and had to wait
for a later flight [1].
The next example was flown from New Zealand to South West Africa. A connection with the Imperial Airways service to Africa was made at Alexandria in Egypt where the mail for South Africa left on 21 August.
Before the introduction of the EAMS, the cost of the
service to Southern Africa was 2/9.
To New Zealand
The first airmail for New Zealand at the new rate left Southampton
on July 28.
Due to the size of the mail two flying boats, Calypso and
Cameronian, were required to carry the mail [2].
The cachet on the cover was applied privately and is
a copy of the logo used on official flight covers.
The mail arrived in Sydney on August 6, but did not arrive in New
Zealand (Auckland) until late on 13 August.
The mail was not delivered in Dunedin until August 16 [1].
The next cover is from South Africa.
It is postmarked 22 July in Greytown (Natal) and would be flown from Durban on 24 July to Alexandria. There was plenty of time to join, on 29 July, the flight that had left Southampton on 28 July and be flown from Alexandria on the same flight as the previous cover.
The cover is backstamped at Waihi on 18 August. However, Waihi is only 150 km from Auckland where the first EAMS mail arrived on 13 August. Similarly, a registered cover from South Africa shown in Walker [2] is backstamped in New Zealand on 19 August. That suggests the mail from South Africa did not connect at Alexandria with the first EAMS flight.
When Pan American started their trans-Atlantic route in May 1939, they accepted mail for New Zealand. It connected with the Empire Airmail Scheme in London.
Flying was still dangerous and there were several crashes
from which covers were salvaged.
The one from which the largest number of covers is still available
is the crash of the Calpurnia
in Iraq on 27 November 1938.
World War II
The last mail that was flown all the way from Australia
on the EAMS
left New Zealand by sea on 9 and on 11 August 1939.
It appears that both these dispatches connected with the
Qantas service in Sydney that left on either the
17 or 19 August arriving in Southampton on 26 or 27 August.
The cover is postmarked on 5 August and so it is likely that it was carried on that flight.
Flights that left Sydney on or after 24 August were interrupted and the mail completed its journey by surface. The flying boat base was moved from Southamton to Poole in Dorset and flights resumed from there on 5 September. The frequency of flights was reduced from three times to twice a week.
With the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Empire Air Mail Scheme was immediately suspended and postage rates returned to their earlier levels of 1/6 from New Zealand to the UK and 1/3 from the UK.
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All scans were made by the author.
Information on this page is taken from:
[1] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by
Douglas A Walker,
Air Mail Society of New Zealand
[2] Aircraft Movement on Imperial Airways' Eastern Route, vol 2 1937-39
Peter Wingent, Winchester 2005.