Page 29 - Cameo 83

Surface mail from Cameroons to Togo, 1915

John Mayne & Rob May

At London 2010 John came across the above item of interest. It is a German postcard printed by the German
West Africa Trading Company of Hamburg, which is not an easily-found item. It has been posted at Duala in
British-occupied Cameroons on 16 October 1915 at 1d overseas postcard rate using the 1d C.E.F. overprinted
10pf German yacht stamp. It is cancelled with the German design of DUALA / Kamerun (b) postmark.

The full message, written in English, reads "Dear brother, I hope that you are well with family, you must
expect me with next steamer" The card reached Lome 26 October 1915 where it was censored with the
Lome, Togo three line hand-stamp. In October 1915 British mail boats had yet to start calling at Lome, so all
inward mail from the UK was routed via the Gold Coast. The French service operated by Chargeurs Réunis
continued throughout the war, calling at Lome, but would any of their ships have called at Duala to collect
this mail or to provide the means for the sender to travel between these territories? Was he obliged to enter
Togoland either by the Gold Coast or Dahomey?

Two alternative answers to these questions may be found in Dudley Cobb's latest book (Ref. 1 and page xx
of this issue of Cameo). The Chargeurs Réunis vessel Asie left Libreville Gabon on 10 October northbound
but stopped at Suellaba Point, Cameroun to offload 500 porters from Gabon for the Campo column of the
French contingent of the Expeditionary Force, anchoring at 7.20 am on 16 October.

Cobb writes "The Chargeurs Réunis steamer left the same day. Salles reports it at Dakar on the 25th, and at
Bordeaux on 3 November." He lists five items of French Contingent mail carried to France on this sailing,
three with the Asie's Matadi-Bordeaux postmark and comments that "These are the earliest Matadi-
Bordeaux postmarks, to my present knowledge, on wartime mail from Cameroun that was carried by Asie.
But mail may come to light from the mailboat's homeward voyage in July."

The postmark date on this card and its Lome arrival postmark on 26th do fit the dates of this sailing, but the
two national contingents of the C.E.F. ran completely separate post offices. A British ship Elmina also left
Duala on 17th carrying homeward British Contingent mail, which the Duala postmark confirms this card to
be, so it may be more likely that this card was delivered to Togo via that vessel's call at Accra, Gold Coast.

Reference
1. Cobb D, "Cameroun in the Great War, Vol 3 - The Homeward Mail", p38-39, Author, France, 2010