CO129-570-3 Sino-Japanese War- proposed refugee camp in demilitarised area of South China 1-6-1938 - 11-1-1939 — Page 103

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would spread around South China and refugees would flock

in consequence; so that the last state of the Colony would

be worse than the first.

I have therefore decided to do nothing along

that line of solution until I get an answer from the Secretary

of State to my suggestion regarding a demilitarised area in

South China. The Kwangtung Authorities, I understand,

oppose this notion because they say that experience in

Nanking and Nantao has shewn that the Japanese soldiery will

not respect it: but I am inclined to think that this is to

some extent an excuse for inaction on their part. I feel

very sorry for the Kwangtung rulers they are in an awful

hole: it is recognition of that which condones in my view

what would otherwise be an impertinent message sent by

General Wu Te-chen through Dr. Andrew Lin through the

Consul-General in Canton, to the effect that they regard

as 'unfriendly' the condition imposed by the Hong Kong

Government upon refugees expecting shelter in Hong Kong that

each should have $20 in his or her possession. Blunt, the

Consul-General answered them strongly and to the point, and

I have sent a letter to Blunt pointing out that the amount

of $20 is an exceedingly low one and signifies little more

than that we cannot allow the thousands of beggars, who at

the present time are infesting Canton's streets, to transfer

themselves to Hong Kong's.

I hope most earnestly that the Foreign

Office will succeed in arranging with the Chinese and

Japanese Authorities for a large asylum in South China to

which women, children and infirm men may resort. I see no

reason why men of military age should be allowed to take

refuge there, and I believe that it is the case that the

Japanese rightly suspected that Chinese soldiers were