SHOW MENUOverland Mail to Iraq and Persia Rates 1923-1929
Introduction
This service was an alternative to the Cairo to Baghdad airmail service for acceleration of mail to Iraq and parts of Persia, announced as follows in a notice of 19th November 1923:
The Postmaster General announces that a weekly mail service by motor transport has been established between Haifa (Palestine) and Baghdad. This service will connect with the Indian Mail which leaves London every Thursday via Marseilles and Port Said, and is now available for the conveyance of all classes of postal packets, except parcels, for Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Mails leaving London on Thursday night will reach Port Said on Wednesday, Haifa on Thursday and Baghdad on Saturday night. The transit from London to Baghdad will thus be about 9 days as compared with 23 days by the ordinary route via Bombay. This weekly service is in addition to the fortnightly Air Mail Service.
Packets intended for conveyance by the new route must be subscribed by the senders “By overland mail Haifa-Baghdad” and prepaid with a special fee of 3d. per ounce in addition to the ordinary postage. There is no insurance system; but registration is admitted under the ordinary conditions.
The first mail by the new route will be despatched on Thursday next, November 22.
A slower and cheaper service was later added for items other than letters or postcards. This rapidly became the standard route for "correspondence for Iraq, & for Abadan, Bushire & Mohammerah in Persia", and the special surcharge was dropped in 1929.
| Date | Letters and postcards | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| 1923 (19 Nov) |
3d per 1oz (in addition to regular postage) |
3d per 1oz (in addition to regular postage) |
| 1925 (29 Apr) |
3d per 1oz (in addition to regular postage) |
1d per 2oz (in addition to regular postage) |
| 1929 (29 Aug) |
Last despatch for which fees were charged | |
