Today in Postal History
Libya to Italy
March 26, 1922
Libya, a Turkish vilayet (chief administrative
province of Turkey), was ceded
to Italy on October 18, 1912 after the Italian Ottoman Empire War of
1911-12.
The war was concluded with the Treaty
of Lausanne.
(Note that the fate of the Dodecanese Islands
seized by Italy during the war was not addressed.
The Dodecanese were held by Italy until its defeat in World War II.)
Fought over in World War II, occupied by the
British afterwards, Libya became independent in 1951.
The first stamps of Libya as an Italian
colony were issued in December, 1912.
Starting in 1923 commemorative stamps were issued concurrent with
general issues for Tripolitania and Cyrenaica which are constituents of
Libya.
This cover is franked with a 1921 15c black brown
and brown orange
portraying Diana of Ephesus (Scott 24) and a 1921
25c ultramarine Victor Emmanuel III of Italy overprinted LIBIA (Scott
36).
It has two CDS which have been confirmed as
Bengasi
(now Banghazi) on the Mediterranean coast in northeast Libya.
Bengasi was the capital of Cyrenaica.
Further, the text in the lower half of the CDS is for
'UFFICIO CORRISPONDENZE' or
Correspondence Office.*
This may be an equivalent of Post Office;
however, Ufficio Postale is used for Post Office in Italian.
The destination of the cover was Rome.
The address reads: