- £195.00
1902 censored cover to Thlotse Leribe, Basutoland, with a pair of Ceylon 3c cancelled DIYATALAWA JAN 21 02. The cover was censored in Ceylon and then arrived in Cape Town MY 26. A Maseru Basutoland JU 1 cancel is on the back of the cover. On the front is a Ficksburg JU 24 03 datestamp. Why this cover took so long from Ceylon to Cape Town is unknown.
Presumably though, the cover sat at Maseru for over a year waiting for collection, which didn’t happen. A rare item, very few covers are known from P.O.W.’s going into Basutoland and only 6 from Diyatalawa.
The writer was Tobias Johannes van der Riet, aged 54. He was from the farm "Pinsberg" in the Ficksburg District. He was captured, along with his sons Herald, 20 years old, and Egbert, aged 22, on 30th July 1900 while serving with the Maltitz Commando. They were all sent to Diyatalawa on the "Dilward".
