CO129-563-12 Sino-Japanese War- evacuation of refugees from China 15-8-1937 - 4-1-1938 — Page 98

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Refugee Conditions at Hong-Kong

That 150 British women who had been evacuated from Shanghai to Hong-Kong should have returned to the city whence they came, preferring to face the shells and air-bombs of a war-theatre rather than the cholera and discomforts of the British colony, is not, prima-facie, creditable either to the government of Hong-Kong in particular or to British colonial administration in general. No doubt the great influx of refugees into Hong-Kong created an urgent problem. But

it was not entirely sudden; and in any case much time has now elapsed since the proportions which it must assume became obvious. Supposing that the local white staff, whether for administrative or for medical purposes, were too small, there have been ample possibilities of augmenting it. If ambassadors and journalists can be flown to China, why could not doctors and civil servants? There is nothing to show whether the fault has lain in Hong-Kong or Whitehall. But it looks as if there had been serious failure to meet an emergency that called for abnormal effort.

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