Today in Postal History

  

North Borneo to Czechoslovakia
October 1, 1934

This picture postcard was mailed from Sandakan in the middle of the northeast coast of Borneo.
In 1934, North Borneo was a British Protectorate and Sandakan was its capital.
Sandakan is now in the state of Sabah, Malaysia.

The single Sandakan CDS is the only postal marking on this card.

The destination was Prague.

The sender requested routing via Suez.
I suspect there was an alternative routing across the Pacific and
via Panama or the United States but Suez was probably faster.

The card is franked on the picture side with stamps from the 1925-28 pictorial series.
There is a 1c. chocolate brown and black Malaysian tapir and
a 2c. claret and black traveler's tree (SG 277 and 278).

Although Sandakan appears to have been a pretty spot in 1934 it must have been isolated.
Current views show it to be thriving.

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