Qatar - Registered Letters

Registered letters have a long history, which is generally not well known. As mail from Qatar began a long time back, and under the auspices of the English administration, it would make sense that it would follow the standards and procedures of the Royal Mail.

Back in the 1800's, mail would be collected by the postman, and any item that needed that extra bit of attention/guarantees of delivery - Registered - would not only have an extra charge, but the postman would enclose it in a green wrapping see image below. These 'wrappers' are still available to buy on sites such a eBay at a premium price.

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The wrappers did allow for a tracking system from handover to reception as required for registered mail. However, while this worked for a while, clearly it was an extra burden on the postman. Having to carry these wrappers on the off chance someone would require one, the practise was discontinued in the second half of the 1800's. This lead to many items going missing. So a second procedure was developed - tying the registered mail with a green ribbon (see image below). A little less cumbersome for the postman, but still not ideal.

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A further improvement to the postman's burden was to simply directly apply a crayon blue cross onto the covers. While within Great Britain the blue cross soon became a standard way to mark and identify registered mail, throughout the British controlled territories some opted to use the blue cross while others used a red cross (there are a few examples of some covers having both red and a blue cross). The cross became so successful that many other countries in Europe adopted in in one fashion or another. The countries around the Arabian Gulf were no different in this aspect, with examples of these shown in the image below.

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As can be seen from the above image, some covers were officially available from the post office with the cross already on them, while others the cross was added after the fact. In Qatar there never have been official post covers with the cross on them, but nevertheless, there are examples of covers onto which the blue cross was added. Most likely customers aware of the Royal Mail use of the cross to identify Registered Mail through it. The image below is an example of one such cover sent to Switzerland.

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