Shanghai Emergency Postal Service 1932
- the Scouting Connection

The editor of the Scout and Guide Stamps Club Bulletin asks in the SGSC Bulletin for March/April, 2003 whether there is a connection between Scouting and the 1932 Emergency Postal Service (E.P.S.) in Shanghai, China. Indeed there is such a connection, and it is described below.

On the basis of the Treaty of Nanking, Shanghai was declared open to foreign trade on November 14th, 1843. The Shanghai International Settlement's Municipal Council was organised in 1863 following agreement between the American and British representatives in Shanghai to combine those two settlements. The Council was then composed of elected representatives of the qualified foreign ratepayers. As the city grew and the population became overwhelmingly Chinese, a minority representation from the Chinese community was added in 1921. By 1932, Shanghai was a cosmopolitan city with a population in excess of 1.5 million people.

3,500 postal workers in Shanghai went on strike May 22, 1932, this was a Sunday. The strikers belonged to the postal organisations, and their objective for going on general strike was not personal gain, but to improve China's postal system. The strike had been anticipated, and swift action had been taken by the Municipal authorities to cope with the situation created by the strike of the postal workers. During the weekend an organised staff was appointed in anticipation of the proposed strike so that plans were well in the making for the establishment of an emergency post office. This post office opened on Tuesday, May 24. The organisation was constructed to deal with outward mail only, with plans to also handle incoming mail if the strike should continue. The control of the post office was in the hands of Mr E.S. Wilkinson, who assisted in a similar capacity in the formation of an emergency post office in 1927.

The demands of the striking workers were accepted in principle. Workers in different places throughout the country joined them in their fight and the postal service was paralysed for the period of suspension. After being on strike for five days to enforce their demands, the postal employees resumed duty on Friday, May 27. The emergency post offices ceased to function as the regular postal services started to function again. It is believed that the E.P.S. operated until Sunday, May 29, 1932, and, thus, the functional period for the E.P.S. was less than a week.

"The North-China Herald" of May 31, 1932 has this report on the Emergency Postal Service:
Emergency Services
Preparedness on the part of the Settlement authorities to meet the situation created an emergency post office in the Administration Building to handle the outgoing mails. Another emergency post office was opened by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, with boy scouts distributing important mails. The General Post Office and six sub-offices maintained a curtailed service with staffs composed of foreign and Chines workers of the postal administration.
The head office opened its doors at 9 a.m. and the following sub-offices one hour later: Bubbling Well Road, Carter Road, Woosung Road, Wayside, Rue du Consulat and Avenue Joffre. About 30 girls of the Postal Savings and Remittance Bank were in the offices, activities being limited to the sale of stamps and clearance of a certain portion of important mail matter upon application. The China National Aviation Corporation also contributed its share in carrying mail matter to other places.
An emergency postal service was organised by the Shanghai Municipal Council and a large quantity of mail was handled by the volunteer service in charge of Mr E.S. Wilkinson.
Within a remarkably short space of time, counters, desks, grilles and hundreds of sorting boxes were constructed, and the former offices of the Electricity Department were a scene of great activity. Books of coupons at five for a dollar were sold in large numbers and, with Boy Scouts acting as orderlies, business was handled very expeditiously.
The method of utilising the new service was to purchase a book of coupons, at five for a dollar. A regular scale of charges was devised by the Council, and postage was payable by coupon only. The coupons bore the inscription "Shanghai Emergency Postal Service - Good for one letter of one ounce." The coupons were filed as receipts for money paid, the letters being franked.
The Emergency Postal Service ceased to function with the resumption of the Chinese postal service.

Can we find out more about the Boy Scouts’ role in this? The North-China Herald does not mention whether the scouts were Chinese, or whether they were scouts from the International Settlement. The E.P.S. was an invention of the International Settlement, so it seems reasonable to believe that the scouts were British and that they came from the Boy Scouts Association, Shanghai Branch. It would be logical to look for information in their magazine “The Totem”, and a request for this was sent to The Scout Association Archives section at Gilwell. They did not have any relevant information on the subject matter, but suggested consulting the author of a book on the history of Shanghai Scouting. The book in question is called "The Dragon Scouts" and its supplement recording the International Scout groups in Shanghai were written and compiled by Mr Denis Kliene, who lives in California, USA. Contact was made via his brother Ron Kliene of Pavenham, Bedfordshire, U.K.
The Kliene brothers found that there were no issues of “The Totem” from February 1932 to November 1932 due to the Japanese-Chinese war of that year, so information must be sought elsewhere. The Jewish Boy Scouts in Shanghai had their own magazine; however, attempts to locate the 1932 issues of this magazine have failed. It was mentioned above that The North-China Herald had reports of the postal strike, and there were more than one English-language newspaper in Shanghai back then. The British Library Newspaper Library has four different Shanghai 1932 newspapers or bulletins, and even more are known to exist. A visit to British Library in July 2003 gave results, and further information on the E.P.S. and on the Boy Scouts’ role during the postal strike was found in "The China Press", Wednesday, May 25, 1932:
...The Council’s temporary Post Office on the second floor of the Administration Building yesterday had a busy day. Scouts Help
The office opened early yesterday morning with Messrs. E.S. Wilkinson, E.-L. Allen and about 18 workers, some employees of the Council and other volunteers, in evidence. They were assisted by a number of the 5th Boy Scouts (Jewish Troop) under the command of Assistant Scoutmaster A. Gaberman. The Boy Scouts proved highly useful in directing callers, stamping coupons, sorting mail and other work...
On June 7, The North-China Herald reports: …In addition to Mr. E.S. Wilkinson and Capt. G.E. Page, a considerable amount of work has been done by the following ... ...Boy Scouts, arranged through Scoutmaster Jacobs, did valuable work as messengers...

As mentioned above, The North-China Herald wrote about another temporary postal service, which operated during the strike. It was organised by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and also this saw involvement of Boy Scouts. “The China Press”, Wednesday, May 25, 1932: writes:
...Boy Scouts yesterday were lending valuable aid in maintaining the air mail service. The action of the scouts, however, is stated to have brought about a protest from the strike committee of the workers.
The protest of the strikers was made to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, which is reported to have obtained the services of six Boy Scouts for the Chinese National Aviation Corporation.
...The governing officials of the Shanghai Chinese Boy Scouts are reported to have communicated with the strike committee offering the services of the Scouts during the strike. The offer is stated to have been rejected...
"The China Press" reports on Thursday, May 26: ...The District Chamber of Commerce yesterday had established a local letter-carrying service using Boy Scouts. A fuller service is being planned...
"The China Press" continues May 27: ...More than 1,000 local foreign letters were received yesterday by the District Chamber of Commerce which promised on Wednesday to deliver all local foreign letters through the China Delivery Service, 309 Thibet Road, which was formally established yesterday morning. These letters will be sent without charge today by the service, which will stop the work as soon as all postal strikers return to work...

It was on Sunday 22nd May at 5 a.m. that the Shanghai postal strike commenced. The Municipal Council acted promptly, and the very next day organised an "Emergency Postal Service" to cope with outward mail only. The general public were advised of the arrangements made by the Municipal Notification No. 4237 of Monday, May 23, posted up in public places and advertised in the national press. This Notification informed about the regulations for the operation of the E.P.S. Municipal Notification No. 4237 mentions the special coupons that were prepared, and were to be used instead of postage stamps. The printed coupons issued on the first day bear only a carmine handstamp with the letters E.P.S. inside a 23mm circle. Clemo (Ref. 4) mentions that the coupons issued on the following days of the strike have a similar handstamp in violet, plus an embossed buckle type marking. The latter has, however, not been confirmed to the author. E.P.S. handstamps in blueish colour are also seen. Municipal Notification No. 4238 also appeared on May 23, calling for assistance of voluntary workers, for whole or part-time duties. Quite a few foreign residents in the city came forward, including Boy Scouts as we have seen from the newspaper articles.

The E.P.S. functioned for six days, and during this period 16,210 coupons were sold. Eleven bags of mail weighing a total of 358 lbs. were despatched, consisting of 4,536 letters, 225 packets, and 701 registered letters and packets. It would seem from these figures that just over one third of the coupons sold were handed in for despatch of mail. When correcting for more than one coupon being used for many of the heavier mail items and for registered mail, it is believed that about half of the coupons were used.
The coupons seem to be of a different nature to postage stamps. Whereas, stamps have to be stuck on letters to function, it appears that the coupons should not be affixed on the letters. Apparently, the correct usage of the coupons were confusing to the public, and "The China Press" writes on Wednesday, May 25, 1932:
...Don’t Attach Coupons
Officials and members of the temporary Post Office yesterday stressed to a China Press representative that it is highly important that the public be made aware that letters and other mail matter to be handled by the office, will not be accepted if the coupons from the books are attached at the time the mail matter arrives at the temporary Post Office.
In other words, the coupons are NOT to be pasted to the mail matter but are to be brought or sent to the Post Office with the letters or other mail matters. Under the procedure adopted the coupons and mail matter are sent to Hongkong, where the coupons are affixed, then the mail is sent via Suez...

The mail was taken in sealed bags down to the harbour, from whence it was carried by ship to distribution centres in Hong Kong, London, Vancouver and Yokohama. Each ship's purser had to give a signed receipt showing the number of sealed mail bags received, and on arrival at the distribution centres the postal authorities took over the bags and dealt with the mail as if it has been posted there.
Of the eleven bags despatched to the distribution centres, three were received in Hong Kong under this emergency arrangement. These contained 780 letters, 11 postcards, 3 news-wrappers, and 2 packets of samples, making 796 pieces of mail for transmission abroad. The mail for local distribution in Hong Kong amounted to 212 letters and postcards. Previous writers have reported that at Hong Kong, no stamps were affixed, and the mail received an "OFFICIAL PAID" datestamp of 31 MY 32 in red. However, shown below is a registered cover with Hong Kong stamps affixed.
In London, no stamps were used, but just a datestamp which reads "LONDON FS PAID JUN 13 1932" in black. FS stands for Foreign Service.
At Vancouver, the requisite Canadian stamps were affixed and cancelled for onward transmission. Several Vancouver datestamps are recorded on Shanghai E.P.S. mail, all dated June 14.
Details are not known about the handling of mail which was distributed via Yokohama, Japan.
In due course, the distribution centres accounted to Shanghai for the cost of dealing with the mail received.

From a philatelic point of view, comments on this temporary postal service appeared fairly quickly in the Chinese press. Paragraphs in the China Morning Post on the June 14th 1932, and in the North China Herald on the 21st June 1932, gave brief details with photograph of one of the coupons.
The newspaper articles partly state that the coupons were filed, and partly that they were affixed to the covers at the distribution centres. Registered mail carry registration labels with E.P.S. handstamps. A few letters are known, which carry the coupon, and this clearly identifies the letters as originating from Shanghai and being mailed via the E.P.S. Without the coupon or other E.P.S. marking, it must be difficult to identify the true origin of such covers.

From the article in The China Press, we now know that the Boy Scouts' service included stamping the coupons and sorting mail for the Shanghai E.P.S. With this documentation, any mail item originating from the E.P.S. and any coupon with an E.P.S. handstamp can be regarded as Scout philatelic material. And as such, they are suitable items to be shown in Scout thematic exhibits under the FIP regulations.

To summarise:

1. The Shanghai Emergency Postal Service, initiated by the Shanghai Municipal Council, opened on May 24, 1932 and closed on May 29. Only outgoing mail was handled. Boy Scouts participated in this postal service, and their duties included stamping coupons, sorting mail and other tasks.
2. The District Chamber of Commerce operated another temporary postal service. Very little information is available, but we know that Boy Scouts were carrying mail. It is possible that one of the covers below originates from this postal service.

Boy Scouts were also involved in a 1928 Shanghai postal workers' strike:

Lane J. Harris has kindly supplied the following information. He is a Ph.D. student in modern Chinese history writing his dissertation on the history of the modern Chinese Postal Service.
"I was aware of the cooperation of the Boy Scouts in the Emergency Postal Service of the Foreign Settlement in Shanghai during the May 1932 strike, but, as I thought you might like to known, Boy Scouts were also involved in the October 1928 Shanghai postal workers' strike. We lack significant details on their involvement, but some information is available from newspapers."

The North China Herald on 6 October 1928: "The work [of delivery and sorting] is being carried on by a large number of Boy Scouts who responded to the opportunity for public service and are valiantly assisting to restore the mail service to its former status. The Public School Cadet Corps, under Mr. Whitcher, turned out 50 members yesterday afternoon who immediately left the North Soochow Road headquarters with large bundles of mail and most enthusiastically proceeded with the work of delivery. They were closely followed by members of the Jewish and French Scout organizations who numbered about 100 together, and to-day will see the delivery staff built up by the addition of 500 Chinese Boy Scouts under Mr. S. S. Wong, Scoutmaster, who will be used whereever the greatest emergency warrents. Members of the Chinese Orphanage have also agreed to help, and it is known that other youthful organizations are busily making plans to take a hand in assisting the Settlement to receive its mail."

The North China Herald on 20 October 1928 writes: "Shanghai this week was faced with the possibility of another postal strike unless Nanking announced it would abide by the three demands made by the strikers on their resumption of work on October 6, following the four days' absence from work that was intended to tie up the entire mail delivery of the Settlement, and would have succeeded but for the loyal clerks and the volunteer work of Boy Scouts in undertaking mail sorting and distribution."

The design of the 1932 coupon was inspired by a similar coupon used during the 1927 Emergency Postal Service:

Note that the 1927 coupon is identified by the year in that the year is included in the red/pink background printing "emergency postal service shanghai 1927 emergency postal service shanghai" (no capitals). The 1932 coupon lacks the year. Also note that the 1927 label has a 20 grammes denomination, as opposed to the one ounce which was the denomination in 1932. The violet cirkular "E.P.S." postmark seems quite similar in 1927 and 1932.

Different colours are recorded for the circular "EPS" handstamp (courtesy the owner).

Coupon with intact selvedge, note staple holes in selvedge (courtesy eBay).

Registration labels:

Registered covers bear a blank registration label with a square boxed SHANGHAI E.P.S. handstamp. The labels do not seem to be of a provisional nature, and it is possible that they were supplied to the E.P.S. from the Military Post Office. Adjacent to the R-number is a manuscript letter. Letter "R" is seen on covers sent via Vancouver, "C" on a cover via Yokohama and "G" via Hong Kong. Can anyone identify the letter used on registered covers via London?

Certificate of Posting of a Registered Postal Packet: One of the covers depicted below has the Certificate of posting attached to the cover. The certificate does not seem to be of a provisional nature produced for the E.P.S., and it is possible that such certificates were supplied to the E.P.S. from the Military Post Office. Note that the text on the reverse of the certificate refers to fees and compensation in British currency.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to The British Library Newspaper Library, Jan Cosyns, Randall S. Frank, Thomas B. Gates Sr., Lane J. Harris, John Ineson, Denis Kliene, Ronald Kliene, Didier Maistre, Richard Morris and Royal Philatelic Society London for their valuable contributions to this article.

References:

1. The North-China Herald, May 24, May 31, June 7, June 14, June 21, 1932.
2. The China Press, May 24, May 25, May 26, May 27, 1932.
3. The China Weekly Review, May 28, June 4, 1932.
4. Clemo, P. J., "The Shanghai Postal Strike – 1932", The Journal of Chinese Philately (Bulletin of the China Philatelic Society of London),
   February 1967, pp 42-48.

Please inform the author at hallvard@slettebo.no, should you have further information on this Scout Post Service.