Palestine

Palestine under the British mandate issued a British passport of its own: BRITISH PASSPORT and PALESTINE on the cover, the number and the name in two windows, in four languages, English and French on the left, Arabic and Hebrew on the right. It begins with the Palestinian Citizenship Order of 1 August 1925, under which the bearer's national status is stamped.

The inside of the cover carries the High Commissioner's request in English, then in Arabic, then in Hebrew; only the English was filled in by the clerk. Page 1 names the bearer, the wife with her maiden name, the children and the national status; the description, the photographs and the countries follow the British booklet.

Read on booklets issued at Jerusalem in 1937 and 1939. Page 4 has not been found and follows the British booklet in English and French. The High Commissioner who signs is the one in office on the day of issue.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

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The passport

The description of the bearer

• Profession
• Place and date of birth
• Place of Residence
• Height
• Colour of eyes
• Colour of hair
• Special peculiarities
• him

The same paper elsewhere

• Passports by country

Still to be confirmed

• page 4 (the countries, the expiry, the place and date of issue, the renewals) has not been found; it is printed in the English and French of the British booklet, which are the League's, without Arabic or Hebrew. What would settle it: page 4 of a Palestinian passport.
• the Arabic of Profession on page 2 is half hidden by the writing on the booklet read; المهنة is read from its first letters. What would settle it: a Palestinian passport whose page 2 is clear.
• the signature of the bearer and of the issuing officer: page 3 of the booklet read carries the signatures on a strip whose printed words are cut off; none is printed. What would settle it: page 3 of a Palestinian passport, whole.
• the type begins with the Palestinian Citizenship Order, 1925 (1 August 1925); the first passport of this form has not been dated. What would settle it: a Palestinian passport of 1925 or 1926.
• five years, as on the British booklet; the term of a Palestinian passport has not been found. What would settle it: page 4 of a Palestinian passport.
• the High Commissioner who signs is the one in office on the day of issue, from the plain record of their terms; only Sir Arthur Wauchope's signature has been read, the others are written as their names. What would settle it: Palestinian passports issued under Lord Plumer, Sir John Chancellor and Sir Harold MacMichael.
• the size of the booklet is the British one's. What would settle it: a Palestinian passport measured.

Sources

• Government of Palestine, Department of Immigration; signed for the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope. Photographs on Wikimedia Commons (Sp21-004, Sp21-005, public domain), British passport, Palestine, no. 86944, issued at Jerusalem on 21 June 1937 to Rafael Roschanski, the cover (number and name through two windows, BRITISH PASSPORT, the royal arms, PALESTINE); the inside of the cover, the High Commissioner's request in English, then in Arabic, then in Hebrew, dated at Jerusalem, the English filled in and the pronouns (him, he) written by hand; page 1 in English and French on the left, Arabic and Hebrew on the right: the count of pages, PASSPORT / PALESTINE in the three scripts, PASSEPORT, the number, the bearer's name, the wife (maiden name), the children, the national status (stamped: Palestinian under Article seven of the Palestinian Citizenship Order, 1925). (read directly)

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