CO129-571-10 Sino-Japanese War- Medical Relief Commission of the National Red Cross Society of China 12-9-1938 - 7-10-1938 — Page 7

Via Siberia (Army bag)

British Embassy,

COPY

(F 9901/120/10)

(34/60M/1938)

Copied to:-

Hong Kong No.

Diplomatic Mission, Hankow, No.101.

Shanghai,

24th August, 1938.

7

My dear Alec,

I enclose a copy of a letter which I have

received from Dr. Robert Lim, the Chinese director of

the Medical Relief Commission of the National Red Cross

Society of China, appealing for assistance from Great Britain.

All I have seen and heard in Hankow and

elsewhere bears out Dr. Lim's criticism of the Chinese

Army Medical Service and there is no doubt that the

facilities for caring for the Chinese wounded are

shockingly primitive.

Auxiliary organisations, and

notably the Red Cross, are doing admirable work with

very limited resources but at present only touch the

fringe of the problem. I am satisfied that with foreign

help, financial and professional, they could do far more.

Great Britain has contributed handsomely through

the Lord Mayor's Fund to Civilian Relief in China but

this money has not, except indirectly through grants to

Mission Hospitals, been devoted to the care of wounded

soldiers. Financial assistance to the China Red Cross

would, I think, be fulfilling a real need and be usefully

The Honourable

Sir Alexander Cadogan, K.C.M.G., C.B.,

Foreign Office.

and