Belgium issued passport from Tianjin
China issue from 1946.
Locating good samples for ones collection is a “24/7 task”: One needs to be alert and always on the look-out for finding good and rare passports; and when one is obtained, well, feelings run high. Humorously we can say that the “life of a collector” is not an easy one. Collecting is an addiction and the craving for the “next item” always increases.
One of my passions in collecting passports & travel documents is to Chinese issued or used samples from WW2 and earlier. These attract me the most because of the 9 years I spent living in China, and also because of our family connection to the Holocaust and the war as well. This also puts me in a position where I am able to read and understand all the stamps and visas inside a passport as well, which adds to the thrill and joy when one pages through a document.
A few years ago I managed to locate a post-war passport that was issued in the Far East, and lost it shortly afterwards.
Belgium consular passport number 39727/43 was issued to engineer Philippe Jacques Walravens, aged 52, at the Chinese eastern coastal port city of Tianjin on February 8th 1946.
Philippe was the senior manager of the Linsi Colliery of the Kailan Mining Administration (KMA), an important and very large coal mining corporation located in China, which its origins dating back to 1879 (the above mentioned company was formed after the merger of the Lanchow Mining Company together with Chinese Engineering and Mining Company, becoming public in 1912 in London. The company ceased to function or its massive production capabilities came to a halt following the Communists victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949).
Interesting to note that the US First Marine Division arrived in China towards the end of September 1945, and one of their tasks was to assist in guarding the liberated KMA, which during the occupation, was supplying coal to the Japanese (one major coastal port city that was used to ship out the coal out of China was Qinhuangdao, located 300 km east of Beijing). During the occupation period many of the coal mines were under Japanese control and even issued local script to be used at the mine canteens and grocery stores – see added image of a sample used by one such mine in north-eastern China, the Fuxin coal mine.
The document in this article is related to the coal mining industry of pre-1949 and is an important reminder of the colonial foreign exploitation of China that existed, without any hindrance, up to the formation of “The New China (新中国)” , as termed by the Chinese, on October 1st.
The passport was used to leave China for a brief stay back home in Belgium, and then to return back to Tianjin, several months later.
The passport was visaed for transiting through British territory, visa number 8/46 being issued the same day of its issuance, by the British consular section at the Consulate in Tianjin. Ten days later the internal-visa, numbered 134, issued by the Shanghai Police Department was issued to Philippe, to enable him to fly to the western city of Chongqing, which served as the war time capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Once in Chongqing, he applied for the exit visa (No. 5761) from the Foreign Ministry on February 21st for Calcutta (travel was done via air).
Philippe arrived in India on February 26th, registering at the Aliens department the following day.
Air-transit visas were issued by the Government of Bengal the next day, allowing him to travel, if needed en route to Belgium, via the following British territories: Iraq, Egypt, Palestine and Transjordan.
From Egypt, Cairo airport, he left on March 12th for the UK, arriving at Poole on the 13th, departing from Croydon 4 days later.
He spent several months in Brussels, giving him time to rest, visit family and take care of personal business and other arrangements, such as obtaining the re-entry visa for China, at the embassy in Brussels. Visa number 109 was issued to him on May 13th and 2 weeks later he got his British transit visa from the consular section, visa number 8596.
Philippe left his country on June 3rd for Folkstone, UK, and embarking via boat on the 7th. Sailing past the Suez on the 20th and arriving at Singapore on August 20th (we can presume that he spent some time either in Egypt or at another location, because 2 months later he enters Singapore, as mentioned above). In Singapore he received two exit permits, one for Tianjin and the other for Hong Kong, both for air departure. On August 27th he arrives at the British colony of Hong Kong, and from there, to China, entering on September 1st. His next passport annotation is from September 24th 1947, when the Tianjin Police Department issued him an internal visa for the Island of Qinhuangdao (秦皇岛) and Shanghai. There is no other indication of his passport being used afterwards.
I am always on the look out for similar passports and welcome warmly new additions into my collection.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
