1948 South African "service suspended" mail to Palestine: 20 III 1948 surface mail commercial cover from JOHANNESBURG (no return address) to 'Haaretz' newspaper TEL AVIV, franked 3½d & tied by 2 strikes of local postmark; posted 11 days before South Africa suspended surface mail service to Palestine but still affected it (probably before official suspension date) & marked 2x on front by 2-line bilingual instructional marking "MAIL SERVICE SUSPENDED | POSDIENS GESTAAK" (Kibble unlisted - this very unusual, possibly a surface mail only instructional marking device); the cover was probably held at the port for some time pending resolution of the mail suspension because cover subsequently front-stamped 16 JUN 1948 DURBAN transit & backstamped 21 VI 48 CAPETOWN RETURNED DLO. Here interesting proving postmark: sea mail link to Palestine was via Durban and not Capetown. Cut open at top. At this time, from 7 May, mail could have been sent to Palestine through the Johannesburg Zionist Federation's "Box 18" emergency service for 1 Shilling prepayment.