A theoretical analysis is presented for the membrane and bending stresses around an elliptic hole in a long, thin, circular cylindrical shell with the major axis of the hole parallel to the axis of the shell. The analysis has been carried out for the case of axial tension. The method of solution involves a perturbation in a curvature parameter and the results obtained are valid, if the hole is small in size compared to the shell. Formulas, from which the complete stress distribution at the hole can be calculated, are presented.