Page 20 - Jamaica, Censorship - Paul Farrimond

JAMAICA POSTAL CENSORSHIP

Imperial Censorship Service

On 291h May.1941 twenty staff of the Imperial Censorship Service (from Bermuda and Trinidad)
arrived in Kingston to establish a unit with the specific task of censoring mail passing through Jamaica

to other destinations - so called "Transit Censorship". A few weeks later, in July, a further sixteen
Imperial Censors, including a Censor-in-Charge and a Deputy Assistant Censor, arrived from the

United Kingdom . All the Imperial Censors initially used UK-type censor labels with no specific
Jamaican identification.

The Jamaican Censorship Service continued to process all inbound and outbound mail (Terminal
Censorship), and the two agencies operated independently and from different facilities, the Imperial

Censors being located in Half Way Tree whilst the Jamaican Service was in downtown Kingston.

1941 (July)
Transit Airmail Cover from Caracas, Venezuela to New York, USA

Mailed in Caracas and intercepted in Jamaica for transit censorship on 151 August 1941.

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1 .American International Underwriter s
Jai=: ):::. Cor por a tio n,
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111 John Street,
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.->e<t 1HM &. CO. Ne w Yo rk

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)0 DE CORREOS 69
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The letter was opened for censorship by the newly-established Imperial Censorship Unit in Jamaica,
being re-sealed with a UK-type label (JL32, Examiner No.823), this being the earliest known usage of

this type.

The label bears a handstamped date mark in purple ink, this being the British style date layout (DS1)
dated 151 August 1941 . These datestamps were introduced by the Imperial Censorship Service to
indicate the date of censorship on transit mail and demonstrate that the mail was not being unduly
delayed by the censorship service.