I have lately been reading portions of Ronald Storrs’s Orientations (1937) in a desultory manner. Unusually, between pages 588 and 589 of the said edition there is a plate that has been configured for easy removal. To that end, the plate’s inner edge has been perforated like an old-fashioned sheet of postage stamps.
A remarkable tertiary, parenthetical caption advises the reader—or, perhaps, Customs Inspector—as follows.
‘This disagreeable illustration is included to show students of Near Eastern Politics something of the tone of the unlicensed local press. It can be torn off without injuring the book, in whose text it is not mentioned.’ (!!!) (Emphasis added.)
The illustration itself, not wholly unamusing, is a ‘Blasphemous Greek cartoon’ of Storrs and other Cypriot officials.
I should be most grateful to hear from readers who know of books containing similarly perforated plates, especially such as go unmentioned by the texts themselves.