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 1s 6d from New Zealand and Australia to the UK and 1s 3d from the UK.
The frequency of flights from Australia to UK was reduced from three a week to
twice a week (Wednesday and Saturday) with the first war-time flight leaving
Sydney on Wednesday 6 September [2].
The last mail on EAMS has already been described.
War-time service: September 1939 - April 1940
Mail from New Zealand, September 1939
War was declared on 3 September, 1939. The UK flying boat base had been moved from Southampton to Poole on 1 September with the first flight to Australia from Poole being on 7 September [4]. The frequency of the service was reduced from three times a week to twice a week.
The EAMS rate of 1½d per half oz was increased to 1s 6d from New Zealand to UK and to 1s 3d from UK. The first flight SW 169 from Sydney at the new rate was on Wednesday 6 September with the next flight SW 170 on Saturday 9 September [4].
The new rate of 1s 6d was announced in New Zealand on 4 September. The Evening Post stopped giving shipping information after 28 August [10] when it listed the Mariposa as being due to leave Auckland on 1 September, the Maunganui as being due in Wellington on 8 September and the Wanganella being due in Auckland on 12 September.
The Sydney Morning Herald continued until 4 September [11] and reported that the next dispatch from New Zealand after 1 September was scheduled for 9 September from Wellington on the Maunganui arriving in Sydney on 13 September. If this schedule was followed, the first dispatch from New Zealand would have missed the third flight from Sydney on 13 September and been flown on the fourth flight SW 172 on 16 September which arrived in Poole on 27 September.
As this cover is postmarked in Wellington on 9 September 1939 it is likely to have been sent on the first dispatch at the new rate from Wellington later that day.
There are no censor marks and I am not sure of the earliest date at which
they appeared on mail from New Zealand.
War was expected and a Controller of Censorship for New Zealand
was appointed on 2 September 1939.
An overview of postal censorship in New Zealand is given in [9].
Later Mail from New Zealand
To Netherlands, October 1939
Mail to non-empire countries had of course not been flown at the EAMS rate and so there was not such a drastic change in airmail rates.
This cover is postmarked in Auckland on 12 October 1939 and is addressed to Eindhoven. It would be flown to England, possibly on SW 181 that left Sydney on 18 October and arrived in Southampton on 29 October [4]. It would then go to the Netherlands, possibly by surface.
Although the UK flying boat base had been moved from Southampton to Poole in Dorset on the outbreak of war, it was moved back to Southampton in the middle of October. (It was moved back to Poole in January 1940.)
The cover has franking of 2s.
It was opened by the censor and is a very early use of censor tape.
The censor number appears to be 17
which Startup & LaBlonde
list as a Wellington censor number [3], but as it is postmarked in Auckland, it is more likely to be 77
which was an Auckland number.
To Italy, October 1939
This cover is postmarked in Wanganui on 18 October 1939, is addressed to Milan and is franked with 1s 9d. It was opened and passed by the censor in Auckland (censor number 2). Again this early use of censorship is to a foreign country.
The backstamps are not too easy to de-cypher. There is an Athens backstamp and the date appears to be 4 November while the Milan backstamp appears to be 7 November. That would tie in with it being flown on SW 183 on 25 October from Sydney which arrived in Athens on 3 November and in Rome on 4 November.
As it has an Athens backstamp, it was presumably unloaded there and sent to Milan by surface. That leaves the question of why was it not flown to Rome and unloaded there as that would have given a faster connection with Milan.
In a survey of 800 covers in 1988, the first use of the tape with Opened and passed by
Censor in New Zealand. was 26 October 1939 [7]
while a follow up in 1992 shows a letter to Finland censored on
4 October 1939 [8].
That letter is postmarked in Christchurch, but the censor number is 2
which Startup & LaBlonde list as an Auckland censor number [3].
Could it be that initially air mail for foreign countries was sent to Auckland rather
than being dealt with locally?
Also, is it just a coincidence that the cover to Finland and the shown covers to Holland
and Italy are to non-Empire countries?
To South Africa, January 1940
This registered airmail cover to South Africa is franked with the complete Centennial set and is postmarked on the first day of issue, 2 January 1940. It is backstamped in Harrismith on 13 February.
After being sent to Sydney by sea, it was likely flown on SW205 on 10 January
arriving in Alexandria on 18 January.
The 1940 winter was very severe and Poole Harbour was ice-bound from 20 - 22
January.
No flight for Durban left Poole between DS247 on 13 January and
DS248 on 4 February.
DS248 arrived in Alexandria on 7 February and in Durban on 11 February
which fits with the 13 February backstamp on the cover [4].
To South Africa, March 1940
This censored cover is postmarked at 2.30 am on 27 March 1940 in Auckland and is addressed to Cape Town. After being sent to Sydney by sea, it would be flown on the Eastern Route to Alexandria.
BOAC replaced Imperial Airways on 1 April 1940 and so this cover was flown on one of the first BOAC flights.
It was flown either on SW 229 that left Sydney on 3 April and arrived in Alexandria on 11 April or SW 230 that left three days later and arrived in Alexandria on 14 April. The connection with the BOAC African Route would be with flight DS 261 that left Alexandria on 15 April and arrived in Durban on 18 April or with DS 262 that left Alexandria on 16 April and arrived in Durban on 19 April [4]. Both would have given sufficient time for the Cape Town postmark of 22 April [4].
It was readdressed twice in Cape Town, once to a local address and once to Southern Rhodesia and has a Cape Town postmark of 22 April. Both the new addresses are scored out and there are no further transit marks and so its final destination is not clear.
It is franked with 1s 6d which is significantly less than the pre-EAMS
rate from New Zealand to South Africa of 2s 9d.
To Switzerland
The next example is a postcard addressed to Switzerland and has franking of 1/- which was half the letter rate.
It is postmarked on 21 March 1940 and was passed by the censor in Auckland. The regular trans-Tasman airmail did not start for another six weeks and so the journey to Australia was still by sea. It would then have been flown from Australia to Brindisi in Italy [3], likely on SW 227 that left Sydney on 27 March [4] and arrived in Brindisi on 6 April before being carried on the final leg to Switzerland by rail.
When the trans-Tasman airmail started the airmail rate to Switzerland was increased to 2/6.
BOAC replaced Imperial Airways on 1 April 1940 which
means that the change-over occurred while this card was in transit.
Mail to New Zealand
The UK flying boat base was moved from Southamton to Poole in Dorset on 1 September and flights resumed from there on 5 September with the first flight to Australia leaving on Thursday 7 September [2]. The frequency of flights from UK to Australia was reduced from three a week to twice a week (Thursday and Sunday).
From Singapore
This cover was is postmarked in Singapore at 5pm on 17 November 1939 and was flown from there, likely on SE 194 that left Singapore on 20 November and arrived in Sydney on 23 November. It completed its journey to New Zealand by sea.
It is franked with 55c in Straits Settlements stamps. The pre EAMS rate had been 25c and so it is not clear why there had been such a large increase.
It was not opened by the censor, but there is a Passed for Transmission rubber stamp in purple.
The regular trans-Tasman airmail
to Australia was at last opened in April 1940 providing,
for the first time, a regular all airmail route between New Zealand and the UK.
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All scans were made by the author.
[1] Aircraft Movement on Imperial Airways' Eastern Route, vol 2 1937-39
Peter Wingent, Winchester 2005.
[2] W.H. Legg, Early Wartime Airmails,
Air Mail News, vol 46, pp 197-204, November 2003.
[3] The Postal History of World War II Mail between New
Zealand and Switzerland, R.M. Startup and C.J. LaBlonde, 2005.
[4] Bridging the Continents in Wartime: Important Airmail Routes 1939-45,
H. E. Aitink and E. Hovenkamp, SLTW, Enschede, 2005.
[5] Airmails of New Zealand, volume 2 (1986) compiled by
Douglas A Walker,
Air Mail Society of New Zealand
[6] Civilian Postal Censorship in World War II Some Facts and Problems,
G. Branam, The Kiwi, vol 43, pp 90-97, September 1994.
[7] Civilian Postal Censorship in New Zealand in World War II, Rodney Stone,
The Mail Coach, vol. 25, no. 1, pp 3-7, October 1988.
[8] Letter to the Editor, J Lindley,
The Mail Coach, vol. 28, no. 5, p 190, June 1992.
[9] Postal Censorship in New Zealand 1939-1945, R.M. Startup,
The Mail Coach, vol. 23, no. 6, pp 243-247, August 1987.
[10] Evening Post Wellington 1916-1945, Papers Past,
available at: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast
[11] Australian Newspapers 1803-1954,
Trove, National Library of Australia