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

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the bus now

fold That the Dept's crew is that the 6/N I do nothing

al

avvy

rate for many mon

me

Chs.

to 40 deaths from various infectious diseases.

In any case I think there might be

objections to asking the Japanese Government

to agree in principle to such a scheme at the

moment, as it is by no means certain that they

will invade South China, and our attitude has

always been to endeavour to discourage such

invasion as much as possible. To take up a

scheme like this now would be to give them the

impression that we were quite prepared for them

to invade South China.

I understand from Mr. Henderson that

me

it is unlikely that the Chinese Government woulú

contribute largely to such a scheme. Mr.Henderson

is consulting the League of Nations Department

of the F.0., as to the possibilities of the

League undertaking the arrangement of such a

refugee camp, but it appears to that the

League machinery is scarcely suited for this

particular issue, as if anything is to be done

at all it will have to be done quickly, while

in any case the fact that the League sponsors

the scheme is scarcely likely to induce the

Japanese Government to agree to it.

In the first place it would probably

be as well to ask for the observations of H.M.

Ambassadors to China and Japan, and I attach

draft letter to the F.0. for conson.

[should add that we have approved the

Governor taking powers to close the frontier to

refugees if he considers this necessary, and

this would no doubt prevent Hong Kong being

invaded on a large scale, though some refugees

would inevitably manage to get in.

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draft. P. RogeD 216.