Lot No. 1042
1949, airletter sheet 15c. red written at Montreal 4 Nov. 1949 with comprehensive message inside (but partly glued together), addressed to Shanghai and bearing two straight line ”MAIL SERVICE SUSPENDED” and not even postmarked. Shanghai was taken by Mao Tse Tung's Communist forces at the end of May 1949 but the last major offensives in Central, West and South China from August to December 1949 disrupted communications and postal services from Canada, the UK and other places were suspended. Some parts of China were able to receive post but only by air because of the fighting on the ground. In addition the Nationalists were blockading Shanghai in November 1949 and were mounting air raids on Shanghai in February 1950. In December 1949 the Post Office was accepting unregistered letteres and postcards for China and Manchuria.
