During the war against Japan, since refugees evacuating from various provinces occupied by the Japanese were in need of urgent relief, a set of stamps was issued and sold for twice the amount of the regular postage. The purchase of such stamps was optional. The surtax collected from the public was sent to the Central Government for the relief work. 　　 The stamp design depicts the miserable conditions of a refugee leaving his native place with his family of five. The six denominations are similar in design, but different in the border decorations. 　　 The stamps were printed in intaglio by the American Bank Note Co. and intended for issue in 1941. Unfortunately, the whole shipment was lost en route through Japanese bombing. A new print was consequently ordered from that company. But as the stamps arrived in China a year later, when the original value failed to suit requirements owing to the revision of the postal rates, they were overprinted by typography process at Chungking in new value in the smallest Regular-Writing characters and Arabic figures arranged in two lines beneath the central design, while the original denomination designation was deleted by a floral decoration. 　　 At the same time the six denominations of stamps were printed in the same color in souvenir sheets (192×110 mm.). At the top of the sheet are the characters 〝共拯饑溺〞(cooperate to rescue the starved and the drowning). On the right side are the characters 〝交通部郵政總局發行〞(issued by the Directorate General of Posts, Ministry of Communications) and on the left side the characters 〝中華民國三十年〞(30th year of the Republic of China), all in Regular-Writing characters. The souvenir sheets were also printed by the American Bank Note Co. and overprinted at Chungking.