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1941 Covers & Postal History

Manchukuo Year 8 康德 Kāngdé

American Consulate AR Cover.

This is a cover sent from Harbin on 18th October 1941 to Saginaw, Michigan, USA. The cover passed through Mukden where the original registration label "Harbin 563" was covered by the new "Moukden A 275" label. This re-labelling although contrary to U.P.U. rules, was common practice in Manchukuo.

The cover is marked "AR" and carried the correct postage: Letter rate 20f + Double Registered AR rate 26f giving the total of 46f. The transit time for this letter was 22 days from the day of posting which is fairly typical. The sender did not specify a route.

 Printed Matter Ming Lang Philatelic Society Wrapper.

Above is a wrapper used by the Ming Lang Philatelic Society of Hai-cheng in Manchukuo to send a catalogue to a customer in Los Angeles, California. All of the covers I have seen associated with the Ming Lang Philatelic Society are instantly recognisable by the red squiggle underlining the address. The cover has two boxed purple印刷品 Printed Matter hand-stamps, two purple daters 3rd May 1941 (the date the item was packed) and a red and black hand written 行美國 To America. The reverse side of the cover includes printed advertising material and a note of some of the Reply Paid postal rates in force at this time.

The postage shown is 4f, the printed matter rate for foreign mail up to 120g, this is postmarked 海 城 Hai-cheng and dated 4th May 1941. Without an arrival postmark the transit time is unknown.

The cover was posted in Hu-ma on 28th November 1941. The postage paid amounts to 18f, made up of 2 x 7f stamps and a 4f stamp all postmarked 呼瑪 Hu-ma. The postage is correct at 4f letter rate, 8f Registration and 6f Express delivery - a total of 18f.

There is no arrival postmark but the probability is that this letter would have reached its destination within 24 hours.

The date of posting appears to have been 2nd December 1941, a transit postmark shows that it reached San Francisco on 6th December (the day before the attack on Pearl Harbour). The letter appears to have been sent to Vancouver as shown by the transit postmark 7th January 1942, returned to Seattle (where it was probably censored) on 2nd February 1942 and Mr Tamer clearly received the letter back on 6th February 1942. It is great to see a cover that tells such a complete story - real postal history!

This cover was posted on 10th November 1941 and carries 5 x 2f booklet stamps is also has an 達速 Express hand-stamp in violet. The correct postage would be 4f letter rate, 8f Registration and 6f Express delivery fee - a total of 18f, the Postal Rates table shows that from 1937 only registered mail was supposed to be expressed. This cover shows no sign of registration so it is likely the "Express" markings were simply ignored.

This is a postcard wallet and it has been sent using a 2f stamp. One explanation for this may come from a tariff chart shown in the Encyclopedia Japanese Philately, this shows packets of postcards being included in Class 2 mail at the postcard rate. If Manchukuo had adopted this practice then this fee would be correct, alternatively postcards may have qualified as printed matter, in which case 2f would also be correct.

The postcard packet was posted on 20th December 1941 from Harbin to Japan. It has a military handstamp and may have been checked by censors.

From San Pedro the letter was transmitted to Seattle Washington Terminal Annex PO on Saturdays 26th April 1941 and arrived at the main Seattle PO for delivery on Monday 28th April 1941. A transit time of 28 days, although the postal markings shown that there was no reply on the 28th so it probably arrived a day or two later.

The letter carries four stamps to a total of 36f. This postage is correct, the International 20g letter rate at this time was 20f and registration an extra 16f.

US Customs often seem to have been confused by mail from Manchukuo, this cover is stamped Supposed liable for customs duty, which is then crossed out. This may well have been the cause of the delay between San Francisco and New York.

Like the above cover the letter carries four stamps to a total of 36f. This postage is correct, the International 20g letter rate at this time was 20f and registration an extra 16f.

The cover carries a 印刷 Printed Matter Hand-stamp, according to the Postal Rates table this would mean that the postage had been overpaid by ½f. My understanding is that Printed Matter was charged at 2f at this time.

The Shaw Hsing Steam Ship Co Ltd., is known to have existed at the key port of Yingkow and I can find records for this company from 1920 up to 1947, but it may well have existed beyond these dates.

The design in red shows the familiar image of the North Mausoleum at Mukden as it appears on the 4f, 7f, 9f, 12f, 13f, and 15f  stamps of the 1936 Fourth Regular Issue. The cancel applied to this cover has the same design and is dated 27th July 1941, the last day of the exhibition.

 It is possible that in Harbin stocks of the normal revenue stamps simply ran out and shops were allowed to use postage stamps as an alternative. Assuming the above is genuine this represents very unusual usage.