CO129-570-3 Sino-Japanese War- proposed refugee camp in demilitarised area of South China 1-6-1938 - 11-1-1939 — Page 102

BY AIR MAIL.

My dear Cowell,

Mong hong.

Government House,

June 4th, 1938.

18102

170

I am very grateful for the Secretary of

State's telegram dated 1st June, 1938, supporting my action

in respect of refugees from South China who wish to shelter

in Hong Kong. The situation is very difficult, especially

where conflict arises between conscience that is to say

humane scruples against refusing safe harbour to the

oppressed and, on the other hand, duty towards this Colony,

which is already over-crowded to an extent that is dangerous

to public health.

Many people here believe that the

situation in South China is going to worsen rather than

improve and I share that belief; obviously it would be good

strategy on Japan's part to sicken South China of the war,

and, secondly, to cut the Chinese railway communication from

the South. I am being pressed by the Medical and Ecclesiastical

Authorities to begin building refugee camps in the Colony: I

am quite certain, and they do not deny, that supposing

accommodation were put up for ten or fifty thousand people

or even more, it would be very rapidly filled without any

solution of our problem. There is no doubt that one could

take ten thousand people from the over-crowded tenements of

Hong Kong today and yet leave them seriously over-crowded;

indeed I feel sure that were such a camp to be erected for

refugees from outside Hong Kong it would be filled with the

temporary excess population of this town before many new

refugees could come in. At the same time news of the camp

H. R. COWELL, ESQ., C.M.G.