This exhibit explains the history of delivery of international mail via the world’s longest railway.
From: Russian PO Peking to Berlin 3/11/1902 (16/11). Arrival 14/12/1902. Transit time 28 days. No endorsement required.London-Manila: transit time 33 daysMailed at Harbin January 10 (23) 1904 and processed on Railroad car 262. Twenty-one days in transit to London.Russo-Japanese WarDublin-Moscow-Tientsin 1904.Peace: 1907 to 1914. Mailed at Vladivostok June 19 (July 2) 1907. Arrived in Berlin on July 16th after 14 days in transit.Peace: 1907 to 1914Mailed at Canton September 29, 1911 & arrived in Aarau October 25th. Twenty-seven days in transit.Mailed at Saigon August 7, 1913 and arrived in Geneva September 1 (26 days).To and from Canada prior to WW1.Mailed at the Russian PO in Peking March 25, 1914 (April 6). Arrived in Alexandria April 24th (19 days)Japan to England via Korea.Tientsin-Pukhow Railway: Opened 1912.Parcel Service [Germany]Ocean Island (12/8/14) to Northern Ireland (2/10/14)WW1 Pre November 1917: Japan-St. Petersburg-Moscow-Switzerland.WW1 POW: Altheim Austria to Razdolnoje Camp (Vladivostok) – 231 days.WW1 POW: Omsk to Hannover – 27 days.WW1 The last mails. Moscow-USA via Siberia & Japan (29/9/17 – 10/11/17 = 43 days).Between the Wars: Peking to Italy (21 days).Peking (8/12/31) to Brazil (19/1/32) – 42 days.Hong Kong (25/2/31) to Milan (19/3/31) via ship to Shanghai – Dalny: Trans-Siberian Railway to Novosibirsk, the Caucasus, Turkey: Orient Express to Venice and Milan.Manchuria (8/10/29) to Norway (28/10/29).Persia to China (8/10-4/11 1930): 27 days.China to Palestine (13/3-10/4/1930): 27 days.Tokyo (10/3/26)[26/3/35] to Argentina (4/5/35): RMSP London, Cherbourg, Vigo, Lisbon, Las Palmas, Rio de Janeiro: 39 days.Part flown mail 1937Period 5: September 6, 1923 to September 2, 1939.
Return to Peace and Prosper1ty [1937, 1938]. As members of the international community, countries of Africa also benefited from the transmission of the mail via the Trans-Siberian Railway. The covers shown demonstrate this. Upper cover: Mailed at Kobe, Japan on May 4, 1938, this cover was endorsed VIA SIBERIA. It was addressed to Lagos (Nigeria), West Africa. From Moscow it went to England and was placed on a ship of the Elder-Dempster Line that serviced the West Africa route. Lower cover: This registered cover was mailed at Fort de L’Eau, Algeria on April 29, 1937. Endorsed Via Sibérie, it went by ship to Marseille and to Paris by train. Paris was a gateway for Asian mail which was shipped to Moscow for connection to the Trans-Siberian Railway. The arrival date in Shanghai is unclear.
Closed bag mail.WW2, Germany to USA, 1940.Netherlands to New York, 1940.To Germany and Sweden 1940-41.Denmark to Iceland via Siberia, USA, and England 1940.Denmark to Iceland via Siberia, USA, & England 1940 – reverse.WW2, China to Switzerland.China to Switzerland, 1940.Victoria-Ottawa-London-Moscow-Siberia-Japan 1943-44.Lend-Lease 1945.The end of the story: After Potsdam.
