Middle East issue

Press, 29 November 1977, Page 23

Middle East issue

News that Egypt and Israel have reached an agreement which affords hope of a return to more peaceful conditions in the Middle East, lends added interest to the stamps which foreshadowed half a century of turmoil and bloodshed in that part of the world.

Stamps like the example illustrated here are also a reminder that for a short time after the First World War, the whole region now occupied by Israel and her Arab neighbours was united under one administration.

In 1917, Jerusalem fell to the British Army, and four centuries of Turkish rule came to an end. The Army Post office had the job of handling civilian as well as military mail, and for this purpose a new set of stamps was prepared, for use not only in Palestine but also in Syria and Jordan.

They were curious stamps, and gave no outward clue as to the country for which they were intended, doubtless because in 1918 no-one quite knew what the final political settlement would be.

The letters E.E.F., which occur at the top and bottom of the design, stand for Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In the same year, with British support, the Emir Faisal entered the Syrian capital of Damascus and set up a provisional government. In March 1920,

he was proclaimed King of United Syria (which included Palestine), and started to issue his own stamps — apply Arabic overprints to-stocks of old Turkish issues.