41
EVACUATION REPRESENTATION
COMMITTEE
H 0 N G K.0 NG
24th July 1941.
To the Right Honourable Lord Moyne, P.C., D.S.O.,
H. M. Secretary of State for the Colonies.
descomunation
The Curls upheld
My Lord,
We the undersigned are the representatives of the husbands and relatives of the women and children who were compulsorily evacuated from Hongkong over a year ago and who, although the Evacuation order has since been re- scinded, are not allowed to return. We wish to bring to your Lordship's attention some of the misery and tragedy which the continued restriction on their return is caus- ing and to the very serious effect it is having on the "morale" of the entire Colony.
We take it that the full details of the arrange- ments under which the original Evacuation was ordered and carried out have already been made known to Your Lordship. Briefly the facts are as follows:-
the legality of people would do likewise,
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An order was made for the Evacuation of all British born women and children with the exception of those who were qualified nurses or who were in some important or con- fidential Government department. The decree as published in the local Press for all to read, including the entire Chinese community, was to the effect that any women re- sisting the order would if necessary be put on board "kicking and screaming". The result of this order was a stampede on the part of many of the women to be placed in one or other of the categories mentioned for exemption from the order. It is beyond mere coincidence that among those women who were successful in this were the wives and families of many of the leading Government Officials in the Colony and of the more highly placed members of the social community. This fact alone was enough to in- stil the seeds of anger and bitterness in the minds of those who either obeyed the order out of a keen sense of patriotism, on the natural supposition that most of the or who were literally and, as we now know, entirely unlawfullydragooned into going. We assure you, my Lord, it is not merely a question of the inconvenience of a temporary separation. The drastic severing of family ties, the ruthless manner in which the evacuation was carried out and the mental anxiety and suffering of the women and children, some in a very deli- cate state of health, have already been the direct cause of a permanent splitting up of family relationships, acute mental stress, divorces, deep unhappiness and in certain cases death. It is now over a year since the Evacuation order was enforced and the mental, moral and financial strain is reaching the breaking point. The local situation is serious and a feeling akin to desperation is steadily growing in the minds of the husbands and relatives re- sulting in demoralisation and an inevitable, even al- though involuntary, slackening in the war effort of the Colony.
? Reference
There is also the other side of the problem. If the Evacuation was and still is a Military necessity