Perim Island

Postal Stationary Card to Java

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In 1900 Soerabaja, on East Java, the modern Surabaya and Indonesia’s second largest city, was the largest city in the Dutch East Indies and the centre of local trade.

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Although this postcard took four weeks to arrive on East Java, its journey began auspiciously, probably because the sender knew when the next mail was leaving Perim for Aden. Written on 22nd June it was postmarked at Aden on the 24th.

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It may have been kept for the next mail steamer to Calcutta or Madras, but lacking a transit mark, it is perhaps more likely to have been kept at Aden for the next Singapore mail. The card bears the transit mark of the Dutch shipping agent there for 13th July, arriving in Soerabaja a week later.

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The card itself is also of interest. In 1880 the postal rate for a postcard sent from India was 1 ½ Annas; a year later the rate was reduced to 1 Anna. A presumably large stock of 1 ½ Anna cards was then overprinted with the new rate. In 1900 there was no Post Office on Perim.

 

The Coal Company would have had a stock of cards for its own use. One can surmise that somewhere on Perim  these pre-stamped postal stationary cards might have been available for sale.

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A Dutch friend has had a go at deciphering the message on the card. It ends with ‘I send you this card for your collection’. Perhaps the addressee was expecting a picture postcard instead of a postal stationary card!?