Description
1948 PEDI first flight mail - HIGHEST NUMBER with BOTH CANCELLATION TYPES: Zionist Organization of America airmail stationary cover from BROOKLYN to BNEI BRAK ("Palestine") franked 25c regular airmail rate, postmarked MAY 21 1948 (1st day of PEDI service) using both Type I and II cancels - as numbered 236 this is the highest recorded cover marked by both types (ref. IFPL p.93 says "211"); with US "First Flight" & locally applied CSA cachets on front; this 1st flight arrived in Haifa 2 June - per manuscript notation, cover delivered 9-6-48; cut open at left, very fine and rare. "Palestine Emergency Deliveries Inc." was a private company founded by the Jewish Agency in New York, to collect mail and send it to Israel at a time when the British ceased their postal activities in the Mandate and air links to it were suspended. PEDI mail was carried as baggage, first on a KLM flight to Rome (ref. instructional marking on front), and then forwarded to Israel by Czechoslovakian airlines.
