STAMP STORIES

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21938, 12 November 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

STAMP STORIES

(By R. J. G. Collins)

Philatelic Maps—Xl.

This week’s map should help clear up the confusion that exists in the stamps of China. After the Boxer rebellion, 1896, which upset the internal administration of the country, European powers found it necessary to organise postal facilities. Although most of these powers have now been withdrawn, complete unification of the country • has not been achieved. The British, French, Germans, Italians, Japanese and Russians all maintained consular offices and postal offices in various parts of the country, at which the stamps of these countries with overprint were on sale.

The British offices were in the province of Shantung and the neighbouring islands which were leased from 1898 to October 1930, when they were returned to China. The French offices, both in Northern and Southern China, were closed on December 31, 1932. German interests were interrupted on the outbreak of the great war. The Italian offices were military posts at Peking and Tientsin.

The Japanese and Russian offices were mainly in the north.

Apart from the offices at which the stamps overprinted “China” were used, there have also been the French offices of Canton, Hoi-Hao, Kouang-Tcheou, Mong-Tseu, PakHoi, Tchongking and Yunnan-Fou, where the stamps of French Indochina, with overprint, were available.

Hong Kong belongs to Britain; Macao is. a Portuguese colony and Kouang-Tcheou is leased by France. Special stamps were provided for Shanghai in 1865, but were discontinued in 1898. Chinese stamps with overprint are still used in the provinces of Sin-Kiang (Eastern Turkestan), Szechwan and Yunnan.