The study of airmail rates has become ever more popular during the last twenty years or so. And rightly, because during the earlier airmail era (say the 1920s to the 1950s) most countries were using surface rate plus air fee charges, usually with different weight steps for the two components. Groupings into destination zones were not generally in force until the years after World War II. So, with airmail services rapidly expanding and new routes being created, the air fee structures often became rather complex.
With this new book, Jeffrey Brown has done a superb job with India, end his efforts will be widely welcomed. India is a popular area for philatelists, and airmail collectors who do not necessarily specialise in India need to know whether their covers were correctly franked, and if not, that the postage due taxes were accurately assessed. There are several pages devoted to this latter aspect, and although the author explains the system very clearly, it may be helpful to have a calculator handy for working out the conversions between annas, gold centimes and the currency of the country collecting the charge.
Surface rates and other basic charges (like late fees and registration) are listed, and then followed by the air fees and the combined airmail rates, as appropriate. During the earlier periods, additions for internal airmail service were sometimes required, and there was also provision in a few cases for acceleration through carrying a letter part of the way by air. This could apply, for instance, for airmail from Basra to Cairo or from Marseille to London, on letters, which were transported for most of their journey by surface means. There were also special rates for internal airmail within India, and for airmail to Burma.
More than half the volume is devoted to precise tabulations of the air fees and airmail rates for letters and postcards (and later for air letters and printed papers) to about two hundred different countries from 1929 to 1956. Alterations of rates were brought into force quite frequently throughout the period, not always as consistently as one might expect, and it is really beyond the capacity of this reviewer to count them all; but there must be several thousands.
No one who collects Indian postal history of the period covered can afford to be without this excellent compendium. It is well produced, with many perceptive comments and helpful illustrations; good value; and highly recommended.