WW2 Airmail Canada To Scotland Registered In UK ?

I have recently come across this airmail cover. It has a dumb cancel from ? the date is also unreadable and a London (UK) F.S. mark on reverse which is dated 19th August 1943.

There is a Canadian Naval censor cachet on back and also two censor labels. One Canadian and one English.

What interested me was that the cover appears to have been registered in London before being sent on to Glasgow. Note the blue lines cross both censor labels. There is no indication that any fee was charged for this registreation.

Why would this have been done ?. The only reason I can think of is that something was included that the postal authorities (or the censor ?) in London thought was important / valuable enough to justify the registration.

AQ

This type of "Forced Registration" can occur when the censor discovers currency or other controlled financial materials in the letter.

The registration forces the addressee to come to the post office to claim the letter, and he is then required to pay any fees associated with the importation of the currency.

Thanks. That is an interesting thought. I will try to find out more about this system. Do you have any references to this system and what countries applied it.

AQ

Very nice cover.

Actually, the cancel is not a 'dumb' cancel, but a 'black-out' cancellation, which is a study in themselves. My understanding of a 'dumb' cancellation is one that is lacking the DD/MM/YYs (?) I may be wrong of course.

Chimo

Bujutsu