Notes for persons wishing to communicate with friends in Enemy Countries, or Territory in the Occupation of the Enemy - July 1940

Authority has been given to permit communication with persons in enemy territories, subject to the following conditions.

The territories included in these arrangements are: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Denmark, France (German-occupied), Germany, Holland, Italy and Italian Possessions, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland (German-occupied) and the Channel Islands:

1. Communications must be brief. Erasures are nor permitted.

2. Letters must omit the sender's address. They may be in English or in the language of the country for which they are intended (except Czech) and must contain nothing but matters of personal interest.

(a) No reference may be made to any town, village, locality or journey in Great Britain, to any phase at the war, or to Thos. Cook & Son, Ltd or any of their offices. No enclosure of the following nature is permitted: printed matter, map, plan, sketch, drawing, print, photograph, or other pictorial representation, or postage or revenue stamp.

(b) Business letters and letters containing directions about property or money matters must not be sent to Thos Cook & Son, Ltd., but should be submitted by the sender to the Trading with the Enemy Branch of the Treasury and Board of Trade Imperial House, Kingsway, London, W.C.

3. Each letter must be placed in an open unstamped envelope fully inscribed to the addressee, who should be asked to address any reply to your full name, care of Post Box 506 LISBON (Lissabon in the case of letters from Germany or German~occupied territory), Portugal.

4. The open envelope containing the letter should be placed in an outer stamped envelope and sent to Thos, Cook & Son, Ltd, Berkeley Street, Piccadilly, London W.1, together with a memorandum plainly written, containing in block characters the name and full address of the sender, and an open addressed envelope for the forwarding of a reply, should one be received from the correspondent.

5. The communication to Thos. Cook & Son, Ltd,, must enclose Postal Order value 2s. (stamps or International Coupons cannot be accepted), which fee will cover the postage of one envelope containing one communication to the neutral country, and from the neutral country to the addressee, also of a reply (if any) from the neutral country to Messrs. Cook's Head Office in London, and from that office to the intended recipient. The fee does not include the cost of postage of the reply from enemy territory to the neutral country.

Letters exceeding one ounce in weight will be subject to an additional charge.

Thos. Cook & Son. Ltd, undertake this transaction at the sole risk in all respects of the party requiring their services, and on the express understanding that no action will lie against them by reason of any act or default on their part or on the part of any person or agent employed by them.

6. Letters under this scheme may not cover remittances, directly or indirectly, to enemy territory, for which a licence of the Trading with the Enemy Branch (see paragraph 2b above) is necessary. Normally such licence is only granted where the recipient is a British subject or a widow of British birth. Thos. Cook & Son, Ltd,, can give information as to the arrangements for obtaining licences, for such remittances, and for the transmission of payments if the licence is granted.

7. Communications for Prisoners of War, i.e., British and Allied Naval, Military, and Air Force prisoners and Civilian internees, must not be sent under the foregoing arrangements, but forwarded in accordance with the regulations of which particulars may be obtained at any Post Office.

JULY 1940 (130/7/40 J.R.P.)