-4
•
75-
be payable to the dependents of any officer who may die at some future date. The Colonial Office has already indicated that it is prepared to refund half of the contributions made by bachelors. In practice nothing has been done about this and in the absence of any official records it would be extremely hard to check up on a man's claim not to have married. I suggest that no refund should
be made until after the war.
I am in full sympathy with the request in paragraph (iv) that refunds should be made of treasury deposits provided that the holder can produce the original receipt and that I am personally satisfied that it is a genuine document and that he is the person he claims to be. The funds thus released would be of the greatest assistance to the holders in their present difficulties.
This
With regard to paragraph 4 (a) the costs of the journey into Free China have increased considerably, in recent months. has been due to the closing down of the relief facilities for lodging, food and transport provided for many months by the National Relief Commission, to the general increased in the cost of living and to the devaluation by the Japanese of the Hongkong dollar in terms of mili- tary yen and consequently in terms of Chinese National dollars. I do not think that the increased cost of the journey is in itself a valid reason for asking for extra relief. The extra cost would have been avoided if people had left Hongkong earlier. In practice, however, it means that at present travelling expenses consume an unduly large proportion of the money an offioer receives and that those with large families are particularly hard hit.
The attached table showing the wholesale prices of various commodities in Kukong each month, from January to November, 1942, substantiates the claim made in paragraph 4 (c) about the rising cost of living. It should also be noted that compared with other places in China, Kukong is to be considered "cheap".
Medical treatment is expensive but free treatment has been given by us to civil servants who have applied for it in Kukong and Kweilin. During September and October in Kukong, free treatment given to refugees including civil servants amounted to over $30,000. Those civil servants who have received substantial sums for their final settlements are, however, not granted free medical treatmont, unless their family circumstances are such as to warrant it.
I have already commented on the difficulties experienced by many civil servants in finding employment. This problem has assumed serious proportions and the only solution which I can see is to encourage co-operative effort and to give financial support to some schem2 which would train those unemployed and eventually absorb them in some productive enterprise.
The senior civil servants in Kukong have approached me for an initial grant of $5,000 and a sum of $1,000 per month to enable them to rent premises for a Civil Servants Association. This would act as a meeting place for them and could be used as a temporary - hostel for new arrivals. Notices of employment vacancies could be posted there and if properly supervised, such a meeting place might