We all know how difficult it is to find books about our hobby but now I have good news for you: George Eugen Tudor has published the book “An Analysis Of International Identity And Travel Documents For Refugees And Stateless Persons”. The book contains 389 pages and is very well supported by excellent illustrations of the documents covered. The price for his book is €35 only, very reasonable for such a voluminous publication (ISBN 978-973-88798-5-0).
In Chapter I, the author introduces Dr. Nansen who was High Commissioner for Refugees at the League of Nations where regulations for these types of identity and travel documents were initiated. Chapter II explains travel documents according the London Convention of 15 October 1946, whilst Chapter III covers the Convention of 28 July 1951 with some of the important stipulations on the legal status of refugees and stateless persons under international law. Chapter IV explains the circumstances for stateless persons and the last Chapter V contains travel documents issued to Palestinian refugees according the Casablanca Protocol of 11 September 1965.
The introduction to all laws and regulations as presented by the author is essential to fully understand the intentions and subsequent development of this category of documents. For some of the readers this might be a somewhat “dry” topic but it is crucial for a clear understanding of the subject. For passport collectors like us it is most important to get the necessary background information to understand the documents we are collecting.
Last but not least this book provides us also with an impressive glimpse into the author’s own private collection of outstanding travel documents. All documents are excellently displayed and this might be the greatest achievement of this book – to bring these documents from the past back to our eyes.
Without any reservation I recommend this work to all my fellow collectors. Yes, it is a special topic in the field of passport collecting but it shows also how broad and detailed the topics can get when you collect passports.
