CO129-579-9 Sino-Japanese War- release of interned Chinese soldiers 27-1-1939 - 7-12-1939 — Page 32

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refugees flocked into the Colony and

had to be accommodated in large

improvised refugee camps (at the

Colony's expense, of course); and the

difficulties of the situation were

still further increased by the entry

of about one thousand Chinese soldiers

into the Colonial territory when

fighting broke out on the border in

November.

You will readily appreciate

that the Colonial Government were not

at all anxious to have to bear the extra

burden of expense and responsibility

entailed by the retention of these men,

and would have welcomed any sound scheme

for getting rid of them. For obvious

reasons they could not be handed over to

the Japanese in the hope that they would

be allowed to return in contingents to

Canton