Page 47 - Cameo 83

Rob May then wrote to the editor clarify the likely route this cover took. (Ref 3)
"At that date (August 1942) it could possibly have flown throughout, but ONLY on two conditions—that it
weighed half an ounce or less, and that it was addressed to the UK or Eire. As this cover appears to be
double weight, [ed: my mistake; 5-10g is less than half-ounce] and to a European address, it would certainly
have been trans-shipped to surface mail to reach the UK The airmail surtax was meant to accelerate the
letter as far as it could go by air; which was within West Africa, then from the UK to Lisbon, and the OAT
marking (applied in London) is a particularly nice piece of evidence that the airmail surcharge successfully
paid for the second airmail leg to Lisbon by the BOAC/KLM land-plane service"
Rob also wrote "What we do not yet know is whether the Free French colonies had access to the new
lightweight northbound airmail service at the same (1/3d) rate There are plenty of airmail covers of this
period from AEF and Cameroun to the UK; the problem for us is the lack of arrival back-stamps to show
whether they flew all the way to the UK, or were trans-shipped at Lagos or Accra as before."

Fig 2: cover from Libreville to Lyon at 8fr 50 (probably 2fr 50 basic foreign postage in error,
plus 6fr airmail fee) in June 1942, which, like Michael Barden's, went by air to Lagos and ship to UK,
where the Par Avion instruction was cancelled: presumably it then went by ship to Lisbon.