Via Siberia (Army bag)
British Embassy,
COPY
(F 9901/120/10)
(34/60M/1938)
Copied to:-
Hong Kong No.
Diplomatic Mission, Hankow, No.101.
Shanghai,
24th August, 1938.
7
My dear Alec,
I enclose a copy of a letter which I have
received from Dr. Robert Lim, the Chinese director of
the Medical Relief Commission of the National Red Cross
Society of China, appealing for assistance from Great Britain.
All I have seen and heard in Hankow and
elsewhere bears out Dr. Lim's criticism of the Chinese
Army Medical Service and there is no doubt that the
facilities for caring for the Chinese wounded are
shockingly primitive.
Auxiliary organisations, and
notably the Red Cross, are doing admirable work with
very limited resources but at present only touch the
fringe of the problem. I am satisfied that with foreign
help, financial and professional, they could do far more.
Great Britain has contributed handsomely through
the Lord Mayor's Fund to Civilian Relief in China but
this money has not, except indirectly through grants to
Mission Hospitals, been devoted to the care of wounded
soldiers. Financial assistance to the China Red Cross
would, I think, be fulfilling a real need and be usefully
The Honourable
Sir Alexander Cadogan, K.C.M.G., C.B.,
Foreign Office.
and