74
24
CARE OF EVACUEES WHOSE SAILING WAS DEFERRED:
The first ship sailed for Australia on July 28, and the last
on August 9. There were about 46 women and children left behind
either because of illness or because of pregnancies.
These women,
when released from the hospitals, were placed at the convalescent
home set up by the Red Cross. There, with good food and nursing care, they rapidly recovered and the babies and children thrived
The last two ships to in the warm sunshine and the huge garden. take these remaining evacuees to Australia were the S.S. "Taiping",
scheduled to sail from Manila on September 23, with fourteen, and
fi
the S.S. Nanking", scheduled to sail from Manila on October 6,
with another eighteen.
Two mothers in Baguio, with new babies,
refused to leave and are therefore out of the evacuation scheme.
GENERAL STATEMENT:
ATTITUDE TOWARD MASS SHELTER
This coopera-
On the whole the greater percentage of our Hong Kong visitors were very cooperative and realized the great task of preparing to take care of so many people on a few hours notice. tion was more than appreciated by the corps of British and American women working on the Housing Committee, who were doing their utmost to make the lot of these women as light as possible by providing adequately for their comfort as far as circumstances would permit.
and The white population of Manila is a little over six thousand,
when one realizes that 3,426 extra people suddenly came to our
shores it is easily understandable that there were
some problems
Mass shelter was a decided
and inconveniences in meeting the task. change from the usual surroundings and routine, and it was difficult