The Indian Ocean has borne mail services since the earliest European settlements were made in India, so that here - as in the Atlantic - packet services were well established long before stamps were issued. British sailing packets served India, Ceylon and Australia; French packets Mauritius; Dutch sailing ships served the Indies. After the change to steam, mails were generally routed via Suez, though even after the opening of the Suez . Canal (1869) important mail routes via the Cape served Durban, Mozambique and Zanzibar. The Germans operated a round-Afrjca service. The French routes via Suez served Madagascar and Reunion, Indo-China and New Caledonia; the British, India, Malaya and Hong Kong; the Germans, their Far Eastern and Oceanic possessions; Austrian-Lloyd ships carried mails to East Africa for a time. The most important exchange points were Aden, Zanzibar, Durban, Bombay, Calcutta and Singapore.

Indian Ocean
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