A Sandakan American Consulate cover and letter

The American Consular Service at North Borneo was based in Sandakan which was the capital prior to the 2nd World War. George M Hanson (1869-1929), a native of Ogden, Weber county in Utah arrived in Sandakan on 27 June 1914 on the SS Darvel to start his post as the American Consul.

The sumptuous residence of  the American Consulate is described here, a picture of which you can see by searching the internet. You can see it by clicking the link here.

Here we have a description of the privileged daily routine of the ruling class in Sandakan at that period of our history. This type of household would have a chef, a maid, a "boy" and a gardener to look after most of their needs. In later years, a chauffeur would also be included when more roads were accessible as was certainly the situation in the later colonial days depending on the professional seniority of the these expatriates. But it was also not true that all expatriates lived to this standard.

The cover and the 4 page letter was sent by Mrs George M Hanson. George M Hanson was promoted to his post in Sandakan after spending 1 year 4 months at Hobart in Tasmania. There was a back stamp for Hong Kong before the letter made its way to San Francisco and ending up in Nevada.

The letter dated 27 December 1914 was written about 3 weeks after arriving in Sandakan with her niece via the Philippines from leave in the States. She was obviously finding it difficult to adjust to the climate and the food and in particular a craving for good butter. The letter gave some details of life for the expatriates in 1914.
George Hanson stayed on for about 2 years and his main function was to look after American interests and in particular new trading opportunities for goods made in USA. A report by his immediate predecessor in early 1914 stated that Britain had a third share in the foreign trade of North Borneo with Germany as the nearest competitor. 

And also of particular interest was an 18 page 1914 type written report by George M Hanson. This appeared in September 2018 on ebay and was sold for 200 US dollars. There was an informative preview of a few pages which gave a glimpse of some of the aspects of life in North Borneo. When WWl broke out, the American consulate was also looking after German owned interests such as the plantation at Batu Puteh on the Kinabatangan.
George M Hanson's predecessors at Sandakan were Lester Maynard (Consul 1906-1908), John Nimmo Wardrop (Vice Consul 1907-1916) and Orlando H Baker (Consul 1908-1913). There were some letters from Lester Maynard and a nice article here from a fellow blogger:
https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/death-from-a-complicated-derangement-in-1906-sandakan/
Orlando Harrison Baker was formerly a professor of ancient languages at Simpson College in Iowa before serving as consuls in Denmark, Australia and North Borneo. He died whilst on leave from Sandakan to USA on board an American ship in the harbour of Nagasaki in Japan. There was also some correspondence from him about North Borneo in the same blog:
https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/the-asiatic-country-of-british-north-borneo/

Update 14 3 2020

This is an uncommon incoming postcard from Russia to Lester Maynard at the American Consulate at Sandakan in 1907.

Update 03/05/2021

Dr Jon Higgins, vice president and president elect of the Sarawak Specialists' Society has kindly shared these very covers which were sent from the American Consulate at Sandakan.

Recent Acquisitions

A Brunei stamp with a Brooketon cancellation at last. It is uncommon rather than rare but a superb example like this one here is very difficult to find. They were used only in 1907 from January to May. Consequently, they are only found on the Brunei 1906 and 1907 issues.

The earliest Brooketon postmark was in 1893 (Proud) and these were on Sarawak stamps. In February 1907, the control of the post office was formally transferred to Brunei even though Brunei were on sale there from 1 January 1907. Prior to this date, Labuan and North Borneo are also found with Brooketon postmarks. It is assumed that they were used on ship and paquebot mail. The North Borneo items are the rarest and I only know of less than half a dozen copies in existence. You can see my copy on this blog by clicking here.  
There is no cover with a Brooketon cds known so far I am aware. There is a postcard from Brooketon with a non cancelled Brunei stamp which was disallowed and dated in July 1907 after the post office was closed. Alas!

4

I bought this recently from our society auction at a good discount because it was unsold. This used 1906 1c Straits Settlements overprint is catalogued £180 each by SG. Admittedly this item is not pristine but pairs are very uncommon. I also like the clear Labuan D7 cancellation.

I also bought the first stamp of the pair shown here at our auction. It has a very nice K2 cancellation on a 1883 10c yellow brown stamp. This is in contrast to K1 shown on the second 1880 10c brown stamp. Proud says usage circa 1883 but I also have high value NB stamps with K2 and manuscript year 1889. The latter were most likely used fiscally.

Lester Maynard was the American Consul (USA) at Sandakan between 1906 and 1908. This is an uncommon incoming postcard written by one of his friends who was probably travelling back from the Orient through Russia staying at Hotel Orient Basar. Does anyone know where this was? It was posted on 12 8 07 and transit at Jesselton 11 OCT 07 and arrived at Sandakan on 14 OCT 1907. You can read a bit more about the American consulate at Sandakan in this blog by clicking  here. 

Strangely enough, there is also this postcard from Russia from the same sender which was posted a few days later on 15 August which arrived in Sandakan on the same day after transiting at Singapore and Jesselton. The picture side shows a steam paddle on the Volga River.
It appears to me that the sender is probably not British as he made the mistake of adding Esq after using Mr in the name. He also got it wrong with "North British Borneo", probably from some sort of direct translation. Again, it is rather usual that it was all correct on the earlier postcard. One could perhaps lay the blame on too much Russian vodka.