India to France 1948: Air Letter Service not Available

This airletter (Lang/Saunders AL3) was sent from SHOLAPUR (cds 17 DEC 48) to Paris, France via Bombay (transit cds 18 DEC 48).

Instructional marking "Air Letter Service not / Available Forwarded / by Surface Mail" to indicate that at the time of posting no bilateral agreement was in place between India and France covering the use of airletters. Airletters (or aerogrammes as they were named then) were a standard service between UPU countries only from the 1952 Brussels UPU congress on.

A very similar airletter can be found here.


Reference:
Lang/Saunders, A Guide to the Postal Staionery of India, Vol 4: Aerogrammes & Inland Letter Cards, 1984