Lot 50590 – 1916 (Apr 4) envelope endorsed at top “Passed censor / AKMCS / D/O Kieta”, sent registered to a bank in Australia

1916 (Apr 4) envelope endorsed at top “Passed censor / AKMCS / D/O Kieta”, sent registered to a bank in Australia and franked with strip of four 1914-23 1d red tied by Shortland cds with Tulagi registration label adjacent, “PASSED BY CENSOR” hs below, reverse with Tulagi and Brisbane arrival ds, water staining at foot, unusual.

Note: Kieta is a port town located on the eastern coast of the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. Following the outbreak of World War I, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force occupied Bougainville in December 1914, as part of the broader Australian occupation of German New Guinea. The Australians didn’t intern the Germans but allowed them to be “on parole”.