CO129-570-3 Sino-Japanese War- proposed refugee camp in demilitarised area of South China 1-6-1938 - 11-1-1939 — Page 78

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- 2.

publication:

nor do I think that a 'dementi' would

do any good at this stage. Briefly, the refugee situation

is as follows:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

-

Judging by steamer and railway figures of

persons entering and leaving Hong Kong our

population is a bout 200,000 above the normal.

The towns of Victoria and Kowloon ere,

therefore, crammed and, as you know, owing to the

effect of that on rents we have had to legislate

in protection of tenants: I expect that we will

have to do a little more in that line by putting

applications for distress warrants in certain

cases under control by the Bench as we have

evictions.

The

kelatively very few of the refugees are

destitute: this is partly due to the requirement

that each immigrant must be able to shew $20

per head and partly because of the loss in

exchanging Chinese for Hong Kong dollars. Tung Wah Hospitals are looking after some of

the poorest and rely on Government to reimburse

them. The bill is not inconsiderable but we do

not talk about it, as we do not want to attract mor refugees here. The Salvation Army and other

soup kitchens are principally supplying Hong

•

Kong down and outs, i understand: their name

is legion.

I shall have to put up some temporary