Safe conduct pass for RAF pilots.

NORTH AFRICA CAMPAIGN.

Published by [London]: British High Command in the East, [c.1940-43]

About this Item

A rare chit for RAF pilots to carry during the North Africa Campaign (1940-3) in case of being lost or captured. Written for the benefit of British personnel in the field, the focus is simple and concise. The first paragraph, in English and Arabic, presents a simple greeting asking for hospitality. The following gives points of conduct, such as "remove footwear before entering their tents" and "do not expect breakfast if you sleep the night. Arabs will give you a mid-day or evening meal". A word list includes translations of "friend", "food", "tired", and "enemy". The document was colloquially known as a "goolie chit", a "throwback from an earlier war when Royal Flying Corps pilots in India and Mesopotamia needed security in the form of a document that promised a reward to anyone who would bring a British aviator back to British lines. It was so called because local tribesmen in the area were said to turn over aviators to the women, who castrated them for use as servants" (Feast). We have encountered two other issues: one slightly simplified British issue and an American issue carried by all pilots and crewmen of the Twelfth Air Force with a message from President Roosevelt instead of the British High Command in the East. "Notes for Communicating with Arabs," IBCC Digital Archive, document 25543; Sean Feast, Coming Down, 1988. Quarto single-sheet (244 x 173 mm), text in Arabic and English on recto only, edge-mounted on thick black card within white card mount, all on laminate board, presented in dark oak frame with conservation acrylic glazing (353 x 280 mm). Vignette of the Great Seal of the Realm at head. Backed on coarse linen, minor foxing, sometime folded. A very good example of a fragile publication.

Seller Inventory # 170773

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Safe conduct pass for RAF pilots.
• Publisher: [London]: British High Command in the East, [c.1940-43]