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The petitioners also refer to the illogicality of using the plea of military necessary in justification of the scheme when the women and children affected by it are so greatly outnumbered by the Eurasian and Chinese women who still remain. This is at first sight a good point, but it must be remembered that (1) the evacuation of European women and children was intended as a first step in the defence preparation of the Colony. There is a scheme on the stocks for the evacuation of non-Europeans who belong to the families of men serving in the Volunteers to Fiji and Lauritius, and this scheme will be put into effect in the event of war with Japan becoming immediately likely. anticipated also that a considerable number of the Chinese women and the Eurasians will be able to make their way by junks to the neighbouring districts in the mainland of China or to liacao, a course of action which the petitioners would hardly like their own families to have to adopt;
It is
(2) that the European community was accepted as the most suitable for a first step in evacuation since their connection with Hong Kong was necessarily less than those of the natives of the Colony, and their removal from the Colony would accordingly be less of a blow to the normal life of the community.
There is also the final, and to my mind the overwhelming, reason why it would be impossible at this stage to put the evacuation scheme into reverse. Whether the scheme be regarded as a reasonable one or not there is no doubt that from the international standpoint it was, and is, regarded as a measure of "clearing the decks" as against Japan, and its reversal would be interpreted in the Far East as a whole, and probably in the United States, as a sign that we were prepared to take any further attacks by Japan on British interests there lying down. The decision to evacuate was, of course, a Gabinet one on the advice of the Chiefs of Staff, and it would be necessary to approach them again if it was wished to rescind the Order, but I do not consider this necessary at present. The earlier petition 20 these lines is registered at 251 on 13139/11/40, and it was answered by the telegram at No. 256 on that file. Before sending that telegram we secured the concurrence of the War Office and the Foreign Office, but we have not done so in the case of certain private letters about the evacuation since then and if the reply is still to be that the 3. of S. is still unable to accept the petitioners' case, I do not think that we need do so again.
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