Page 15 - Sutclifffe-APD_Censorship_PoW

Prisoner of War , Internment Camps and Gibraltar Camp , Jamaica.

The postal side of the Camp was deal with by the staff in the Orderly Room, and the
following regulations applied to the prisoners' mail:-

1 . Postage on letters and cards was free.

2 . All correspondence had to bear the name and number of the sender .

3. Envelopes had to bear a notation as to the language in which the letter was written.
4. All correspondence had to be passed to the Orderly Room in unsealed envelopes .

5. After censorship a censorship handstamp was applied to the cover which was sent
through a civilian Post Office , initially, Cross Roads Post Office or the Kingston
G. P. O. and later through the Camp Post Office .

6 . The prisoners ' mail was subject to the attentions of the Postal Censorship Service,
as did the none classified from the Camp' s staff, and received one of that Services '
hands tamp .

7 . Incoming mail was also received handstamps of the Postal Censorship Service and was
also censored when it reached the Camp Orderly Room unless the censor there relied
on the earlier censoring.
Many of the stages listed above required the application of one or other of the
handstamps discussed later or some other action. It should be mentioned that covers to
the Camp often bear a variety of other handstamps and/or labels, such as those of the
German, Italian or United Kingdom or other territories Services .

Camp guards were initially provided by the Sherwood Foresters until the Battalion was
recalled to England, and then by the Canadian Army. Later these duties were carried out
by the Pioneer Corps unit from the evacuees from Gibraltar . The Gibraltarians also
provided supervisory staff and domestics . It should be mentioned that amongst them were
many Dutch Jews , who had made their way overland to Gibraltar after the Fall of France .

On the 27 ~ May, 1946, due to a bureaucratic error, the Germans from West Africa were
shipped to Hamburg via England instead of nearer home . This move caused them much
annoyance, most wished to return to their nearer home, most had never been to Germany
or wished to go there . It is believed that some of the Italians were also on this and
that the remainder of the Camp's inmates were moved at a later date .
It is reported that the guards from Gibraltarians , guards and their families
accompanied the former prisoners , but whether or not they went home via
Hamburg or direct from England is not recorded here . En route to Hamburg the civilian
internees were first repatriated to Swansea for debriefing . The Camp was finally closed
down in February 1947 , by which time the former Italian inmates had already left the
Camp when Italy "joined" the Allies .