CO129-570-3 Sino-Japanese War- proposed refugee camp in demilitarised area of South China 1-6-1938 - 11-1-1939 — Page 14

31. You tel 204

Infis

room

14 18. 7.38

for very large camp at Fanling Hunt Racecourse in case of sudden large influx of refugees, but Legislation necessary to prevent them entering unben areas.

This is a useful telegram which sets out

the problem clearly.

Investigation into the

problem is proceeding, and I think we may wait for

the Governor's recommendations.

Two things seem

There were

53 deaths from

choleng alone last week

mreferably, 256 Say, by this return of Is thin

the reprykes

home quakers ING

to me to be clear, however.

1. That the present large number of refugees

X

in Hong Kong and the large weekly total of

deaths from various infectious diseases

make it most desirable that the present

overcrowding of the open areas should be

relieved by, preferably a refugee camp

elsewhere in Hong Kong.

2. That the success of any attempt to carry

this out will be endangered by a possibility

of the camp attracting further large numbers

of refugees from Kuangtung. It therefore

seems to me important that we should not

give up the idea of the refugee camp

outside the Colony, which was proposed in

(1). The Chinese Provincial Authorities

are not favourably inclined to this

suggestion, for the reasons given in (29)

and they not unreasonably prefer scattering

to friends and relations rather than

concentrating in (so-called) safe zones.

Unfortunately a good many of the Chinese

prefer Hong Kong to either of these

alternatives.

I