Page 68 - 148 Years of the Royal Philatelic Society London

In 1933: Hitler becomes German Chancellor; Prohibition repealed in the U.S.; Roosevelt

launches New Deal; Esquire mens' magazine debuts; Yoko Ono Lennon and Joan Rivers born.

At the RPSL: Sir John Wilson gave a display of the Nissen and Parker issues of Shanghai and

showed the original dies for three 1866 values that he then donated to the Society.

RPSL President was R. B. Yardley. Patron H.M. King George V. Membership 482.

BAGHDAD - MOSCOW - TOKYO AIRMAIL,

A SHORT-LIVED ROUTE VIA RUSSIA

From the collection of Norman Banfield FRPSNZ, FRPSL.

Member since 2004. Lives in New Zealand.

J •. !J<.ll.

From January 1927 Imperial Airways operated the Cairo-Baghdad-Basra air service connecting with

P&O ships at Port Said. From March 1929 the service ran from London to Karachi and gradually

extended eastwards - to Delhi in January 1930, Calcutta July 1933, and Rangoon September 1933.

KLM flew direct Rangoon - Batavia, missing out Singapore. Thus the quickest airmail route from

Baghdad to Tokyo in July 1933 was via Leipzig (KLM), Berlin (Lufthansa), Moscow (Deruluft),

Vladivostok (Dobrolet), then by sea to Japan. Note the Russian airmail receipt and despatch cachets.

A far cry from today's airmail services that we take for granted!