He procesado el texto del enlace al PDF facilitado por
Josean,
y reproduzco el texto en inglés del cuerpo principal del artículo
(faltan aún los anexos y las imágenes con descripción de piezas).
Me preocupa recurrir a traductores 'on-line' como el de Google,
por sus mediocres resultados. ¿Se anuma algún forero a utilizar
un traductor más eficaz, y a adaptar en lo posible el texto final?
Tampoco sé cómo convertir las imágenes de las piezas del PDF,
para poder subirlas al hilo. ¿Algún experto que eche una mano?
Gracias y un fuerte abrazo a todos,
EQ
The World War II “Thomas Cook” Undercover
Mail Service between Canada and Norway
- A Link for Norwegian Seamen –
By
Ed Fraser
Only in recent decades has there been much focus on details of the World War II civilian wartime mail service between Canada and Germany, or Axis Occupied Countries. These details have been elusive to find, unlike the more-documented London-based Thomas Cook undercover mail service that was widely used and openly advertised in the British press. Initially, the London service used Amsterdam, Holland, as the neutral place for sending mail into Germany and receiving mail replies from Germany. When Holland fell in May, 1940, London changed the service to neutral Portugal. That service, principally using Box 506 in Lisbon, handled a large volume of mail for the first few years of the war. The Axis tolerated allowing such mail, or did not enforce harsh laws that they had against anyone sending letters using undercover mail schemes.
Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, and Canada did so a week later, September 10. In a much lower profile way, Canada took steps to initiate an undercover mail service through the still-neutral United States. By November 24, 1939, an agreement had been finalized with Thomas Cook & Son in Toronto to do the job. This can be confirmed by the newspaper article from the Montreal Gazette of November 25, 1939, shown as Figure 1. (Author’s note: The author would appreciate knowing of other concurrent public announcements or newspaper articles about this service.) Why Thomas Cook & Son?
When World War II started, apparently as both a humanitarian service and a modest revenue generation effort to offset lost travel agency business, Thomas Cook & Son proposed to the British government to be allowed to offer a forwarding service for civilian mail between England and Germany via a mail drop in Holland. The same reasoning probably applied to Thomas Cook & Son in Canada, except that using the United States was more convenient than Holland.
Information about this service apparently was available through post offices and by writing to Thomas Cook in Toronto, but copies of such information has eluded the philatelic community. Nothing has been found in print showing what address – or even what city or cities – were used as undercover addresses in the United States.
The information has been deduced from fewer then 1,000 covers and some enclosed slips from Thomas Cook in Toronto occasionally found in surviving mail. The bulk of covers, regardless of what country they are from, are basically all addressed to “Care of Post Box 252, Grand Central Annex Post Office, New York, U.S.A.” They typically have Axis censorship, are addressed to different names, and also have Canadian censorship indicating they somehow went from New York to Canada as it would not make sense to have come from occupied Europe to Canada, and then onward to neutral New York.
Unfortunately, neither Canada nor the United States routinely postmarked any of this mail on arrival or in transit. Additionally, most known covers are without contents. I believe that many of these covers probably were retained by Thomas Cook and only the contents were passed along from Cook’s Office. At some point Thomas Cook’s empty covers then wound up in the philatelic community.
While much of the functioning of this service is discussed in correspondence that can be found in official Canadian microfilm records in scattered places – and more needs to be found – one such letter involving Norwegian seamen would seem of particular interest to the collector community. That is shown as Figure 2, and is a most interesting complaint. This fortuitous letter conveys a story easily lost in history.
This letter describes the situation quite well, but it does not appear that any accommodation was ever made for these seamen. The related correspondence that followed took a typical bureaucratic approach, offering nothing.
Historical Background
To review the history of the time, Germany attacked Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940, forcing Denmark to surrender almost immediately. The Germans were unable to seize the Norwegian government, which then fought on. By early May, German control covered most of Norway, but fighting continued into June in northern areas while the Norwegian government then fled to England.
There was an effort by the Norwegian merchant fleet to get to or stay at sea to avoid the Germans. Many subsequently helped the Allied war effort. Halifax, Nova Scotia, was an important seaport in that effort.
Discussed here are several covers directed through Box 252 in New York to Norwegian seamen and others in Canada. These were all from the summer of 1940, and from the towns listed in Table 1. Other covers from Norway that may or may not have been to seamen are listed in Table 2.
It is not known where in Canada any of these addressees actually were, but Halifax was probably a popular location for seamen. Usually “letters home” during wartime survive better, but here no “letters home” are known or identified, and we only have these letters “from home” to work with. Hopefully a little publicity – such as this article – will result in some of the “letters home” turning up, even after all these years.
This forwarding service through the United States obviously came to an end when the U.S. entered the war against Germany in December, 1941. So did many other ways to contact Canadians one way or anotherthrough the U.S. There were proposals for Thomas Cook to offer a service to Americans after December,
1941. That apparently never materialized. Some mail routing between Canada and Portugal, and also between the United States and Portugal, did continue in various ways through the war, but on a smaller scale.
Covers shown here as Figures 3 through 8 are all dated before the District Director of Postal Services’ letter of October, 1940 (shown in Figure 2) was sent, although I believe apparently no accommodation was made as a result of that letter. The cover shown in Figures 6 and 7 has no indication of involving seamen’s mail. However, checking out additional Norwegian Box 252 covers proved interesting.
Additional information was obtained with the help of Siri Lawson, who maintains a scholarly website about Norwegian seamen in general and their involvement in World War II in particular.
The Norwegian covers discussed here happen to include seamen’s mail to just three ships – the “Suderøy,” the “Pelagos” and the “Sir James Clark Ross.” Is that a coincidence? Is there a common thread between the three ships? My guess is that someone advised these three about the Thomas Cook service, or they saw a notice about it, and the information was passed on to the crews of these three ships.
Figures 3 and 4 show a cover addressed to a seaman on the “Pelagos.” The records indicate he was captured with the ship by the Germans, and later in 1941 apparently was returned to and released in Norway. Figures 5 and 8 show two covers addressed to seamen on the “Sir James Ross Clark.”
The history is that when the thousands of Norwegian ships at sea heard of the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, most sought to avoid returning to Norway.
Three such ships were off England, and when they decided to contact British authorities, the “Suderøy,” the “Pelagos,” and the “Sir James Clark Ross,” – “whale factories” apparently along with “whale catchers” – were directed to go to Halifax for further orders.
Examining Norway Examples
The evidence from known covers suggests that Thomas Cook maintained books with the names and addresses of the Canadian senders, as well as the names and possibly the addresses of where the mail was sent in occupied Europe. A 50-cent fee covered receiving one reply. Of course, the addressee in occupied
Europe would have no way to know that, so surely additional replies were sent, sometimes from other family members and friends who might conclude that the addressee was actually in New York. (How would they really know they were writing to an official “undercover” address?)
These additional replies from Europe may have been either held or sent onward by Thomas Cook, which requested payment from the Canadian addressee of an additional 25-cent fee. They may have been held when the addressee still owed 25 cents from a previous “extra delivery.”
A nice example suggesting this case is shown by the pencil annotation added to the August 19, 1940, seaman cover shown in Figure 8. That annotation apparently reads “Sent to Halifax Sept 26 – 25¢ to collect.” (I read this as meaning the contents were sent to Halifax with a note to return payment to Thomas Cook, and only this envelope was held at Thomas Cook.) It is especially interesting as it indicates the addressee’s address was in Halifax.
A few other annotated Box 252 addressed covers are known. Again, though, even with known slips requesting 25-cent payments to Thomas Cook in Toronto, there is no official paperwork linking Box 252 in New York and Thomas Cook. The firm has maintained that this information, and any records, did not survive the war.
Mail Censorship
The censorship of Box 252 mail is often somewhat distinctive because it usually had both Axis and Canadian censor tapes. In a quick review of 100 non-Norwegian covers addressed to Box 252, the following was noted: Three-quarters were from Germany, and all but one from Germany had Nazi censorship, and all had Allied Censorship, almost always being Canadian censorship. The ones from France and two from Italy only had Canadian censorship. Ones from Allied or neutral countries, e.g., Sweden, Russia, had only Canadian censorship. Overall, a few had PC 90 censorship, e.g., two from Denmark, but all the rest had Canadian censorship. None had PC 90 and Canadian censorship together. In total, only three covers were without Axis censorship where it might have been expected, perhaps suggesting a 3 percent pass-through rate of uncensored mail. (“P.C. 90” refers to the form number on many censor sealing tapes.
“P.C.” was a fairly standard prefix used to identify the forms used throughout the British Empire by the “Postal Censorship,” and this is thought to be what P.C. stands for. Whether the number is “90” can depend on when and where it was used. An attempt was made, beginning in the spring of 1942, to have P.C. 90 throughout the entire Imperial Censorship operation, i.e., the British Empire and its Dominions.)
It is noteworthy, therefore, that the undercover mail from Norway is often without Nazi censorship. Looking at the small sample here, it seems only about one in six or ~17 percent show Nazi censorship. It is known that the Nazis appealed to the merchant seamen to return home to Norway and perhaps took minimal action against them when they were on a ship seized by the Germans. Could it be that they wanted it to appear that there was no real repression and censorship in Norway? Were letters to seamen required to be mailed unsealed at Norwegian post offices so they did not have to be cut open and show censorship? In any event, it seems curious how few show Nazi censorship. Can any reader add detail to this?
Also, very few covers addressed to Box 252, regardless of origin, have the usual Allied censorship – for example, P.C. 90 censorship. The first suggestion here is that the Allied censors were aware that Box 252 mail was for Canada and that it would receive Canadian censorship down the line. The Allied censors, therefore, may not have bothered to censor this mail. The Canadian censorship for this time period is shown by the “C.64” or the “C.53” on the censor tapes used on all of these covers from Norway. (Typical Canadian censor tapes found on other Box 252 covers include C.18, 22, 24, 42, 50, 54, 57, & 73, and others.) Other censorship on some covers was sometimes American, done in New York City. For those with the P.C. 90 censorship tapes, it is more complicated to know if this was done in Bermuda, or elsewhere, before arriving in New York.
Speculation on Addresses and Handling
Instructions provided by Thomas Cook were likely printed on a slip of paper or handstamped, in English, and enclosed in mail into occupied Europe. It may have stated that, “Your reply to this letter should be addressed to me care of post box No. 252, Grand Central Annex Post Office, New York, U.S.A.”
I say this because covers are known from Europe with this entire text written on them as the address! It is odd that Thomas Cook’s instructions might be given that way to a recipient who might not read English, but perhaps this happened where the seaman or other person sending those instructions from Canada didn’t know English either. Were instructions available in Canada in different languages? We do not know. It is also odd that they did not use the proper American form for the address, which would have been “Post Office Box 252” or “P.O. Box 252” and the city and state “New York, N.Y,” and not just the city and “U.S.A.” I have seen only a few covers addressed to “New York, N.Y.” or specifying “New York City.”
The rest have the same poorly constructed address format.
As further speculation, I wonder if the address might originally have been proposed as a post office box in Buffalo, New York, which would have been most convenient for Thomas Cook in Toronto. It could have been that U.S. postal authorities objected and advised that a New York City address would be better for them. A late change in the address might cause the sloppy address directive.
Additionally, it is possible that mail to Box 252 at the Grand Central Annex post office was never picked up by the local Thomas Cook office people in New York but simply bundled at the U.S. post office and sent on to Canadian censorship. This is based on personal conversations years ago with Thomas Cook office personnel that used the Grand Central Annex post office for their mail and with conversations with their then-retired mail clerk who picked up their mail daily from that post office during the war. He was quite certain he never saw quantity of mail that was then passed on to Canada, and did not remember having seen any such mail, although specific box number information was not remembered. Business mail would likely have been picked up from a postal clerk rather than out of a lobby post office box.
Of course, how the mail to Occupied Europe, including Norway, was handled is still unknown and different ways may have been used. In summary, there are still mysteries to be revealed regarding World War II undercover mail.
(The author collects WWII Thomas Cook-related undercover mail and would appreciate any additional information, comments, or questions. Contact Ed Fraser, 195 Marine Street, Farmingdale, NY 11735 (USA), or email
edfraser@gmail.com.)
(Acknowledgements: Thanks to Paul Nelson, Alan Warren, Siri Lawson, the late Art Lind, and Paul Albright for their help with this article.)
References:
— Articles about the Thomas Cook undercover mail forwarding during WWII generally are about the British service through London. The classic overview article is “Post Box 506, Lisbon – Correspondence in World War II,” by A. E. Gilbert, Stamp Collecting, December 21, 1978. While he did a diligent job, Gilbert was working with a universe of only
— 166 reported covers at the time. (No Norwegian, 13 Danish, and 5 Finnish.) There are at least 100 articles in many philatelic publications on undercover mail in the past 30 years.
— The original articles reporting Box 252, Grand Central Annex mail as an undercover address for Canada were written by Kenneth Rowe, available online as “The Mystery of Box 252, a World War II Accommodation Address” BNA Topics, March-April, 1976, and “Post Box 252, New York” Canadian Philatelist, Vol. 30, No 6: Nov-Dec, 1979. At that time, no Norwegian covers were reported.
— A.E. Gilbert and Jim Lewis co-authored an article on Box 252 covers in the Third Reich Study Group Bulletin #47, in 1978. A follow-up article is “Box 252,” TRSG Bulletin #58, by Art Hecker.
— References to covers involving Norway are rare. The comprehensive treatise by Svein Andreassen “Norge – Postveier og sensur under den annen verdenskrig” (Utgitt av Norsk Filatelistforbund og Filatelistisk Forlag a/s, Bergen 1995,259 pages) shows one Box 252 cover from Bergen on June 16, 1941, and references the Thomas Cook Lisbon service.
In addition, he discusses some Thomas Cook history and illustrates some Box 506 Lisbon covers, including one Norwegian example. He also discusses several other mail schemes used during the war. The book is only in Norwegian.
Siri Lawson maintains a Web site on Norwegian seamen at
http://www.warsailors.com/oddswar/frameoddlinks.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
Information on the “Suderøy,” “Pelagos” and “Sir James Clark Ross” can be found at
http://www.warsailors.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
singleships/suderoy.html and at
http://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/nortraship.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. There is also a review of how the
Norwegian government in exile arranged for control of the huge Norwegian shipping industry in the war and assisted the Allied war effort. Crew lists are apparently incomplete, but some like the “Pelagos,” which was captured by the Germans in Antarctica in January, 1941, list captured Norwegian seamen in fair detail. It is also not clear which seamen were officially the crew of the whale factory, or may have been strictly whale chaser ship crew, or if this changed back and forth.
A Box 506 cover is discussed in “Gertrude van Tijn and the Rescue of Dutch Jews” by Larry Nelson, American Philatelist, September, 2006.
See also “1941 cover sent from Vilnius
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