This seems to be a nice system, its looks to me as if you choose numbers that relate parts of sentences for example if you wanted to write "Birthday greetings my thoughts and prayers are ever with you" you would type in the numbers 58 = birthday greetings and 67 = my thoughts and prayers are ever with you. I don't think you'll be able to see by the scan but these numbers go from 1 up to 189 and cover numerous segments of sentences and sub headings for example: War damage, bereavement, health, greetings etc....
These envelopes I guess would have contained letters to the servicemen in the field. it must have been a nightmare for the regimental postal services because these envelopes are well and truly battered. one of the envelopes has been redirected several times with it being returned to the UK twice. I guess when you are in the field and you are on the move all the time its hard to keep track. Both envelopes have censor stamps on them.
I guess the Censors had no sense of humour! Wrote by: Tom Smudger / Steve - This is not quite so as they were perfectly readable - true they were reduced in size - then at the recipients end - they would be enlarged to original size and perfectly readable - should know we received many of them - and sent even more with no hassle - possibly your local post office didn't have the means to enlarge them ??? Cheers Cheers Tom that explains what I have in my collection, I have about 10 of these messages all various designs and then I have one that is the size of a A4 sheet, which as Tom explained would have been the original message before being copied/reduced. I have attached a copy of this original mail and what is more interesting is that this was never sent as it was censored as on the back in red writing reads "Not Passed By Censor"
