Lot 20510 – 1899 An extremely rare correspondence during the San Mun Bay Quarrel and forwarded through Italian naval mail.

1899 (May 16) Envelope sent unfranked from Shanghai, sent to Venice through Italian naval mail as confirmed by “Ra NAVE ELBA” cds, entering the Italian soil at Brindisi with application of 1891-96 20c tied in transit, taxed on delivery with postage due 40c, tied by Venice cds; very interesting full contents including “In Italy they have to be persuaded by something, and this is that China is a country with 400 million inhabitants and not the San Marino Republic, that this country does not fear us because it is not easy to beat it and that the greatest nonsense to be done is to occupy by the force -today after having wasted three months- the San Mun Bay. If this must be our objective, we will not even find a junk which will oppose us but basically we will not have obtained anything”. An extremely rare correspondence during the San Mun Bay Quarrel, with most of the existing items being gathered in this collection, in this case showing a different usage by being forwarded through the Italian naval mail.