An Menelo Regentered An ps
Dear Mr.Churchill,
The Bank of New South Wales.
Travel Dept.
George Street.
Sydney.
46
Australia.
Tuesday, 1st July, 1941.
I know I em taking a
em taking a great liberty in writing to you, but I Am feeling desperate, and feel that you surely, as our Leader will be fair
nd just, end I hope that this letter does reach you and is read by you personally, and that if you cen do so you will help me and all the other omen on whose behalf I am writing too, and if you personally cannot do nything in this metter, that you will be kind enough to have it attended to by the correct department, and ask that just and fair treatment should be given. I know that you are the busiest man in the Empire and will probably think our troubles very trivial, but dont forget we are mert of your Empire, and if you fail us then my faith and the faith of hundreds of other women in Democracy will be gone, in fact, its nearly kone now, although in my heart I feel that you and your government will
ive our case a fair hearing.
The facts are as follows:
Hong kong is my home. I am English, although born in Hong Kong end have lived nearly all my life there I married an Englishman and he too, has spent twenty two years in the Hong Long Government service working for his country too. In July 1940 Hong Kong women and children were ordered to evacuate and on the 5th July 1940 I and several hundred other women and children (roughly just over two thousand) were ordered to leave by the Empress of Japan we are known as the Civilian evacuees uite different from the Army and Naval evacuees who left the Colony on the 1st July, end who I understand come under the War Dept. end the Admiralty at home, we the Civilians come under the Hong hong govt. end we are all residents of the Colony, all our husbands end many of us too, Fork in Hong Long and we all have our homes there - the Army and Navel wives and families are not domiciled in the Colony es they only go there for periods of two or three years, and it is not on their behelf that I em writing Bat for the Civilian evecuees.
wag
We were taken by ship under very bad conditions to Manila and hed en erful time in Manila too
arrangements were disgusting, but the H.K. government ere to blame for this, as we all know that the American Army and Red Cross tried to do their very best for us - then after three reeks they brought us down to Austràlia - arrangements were made for us to be met and to help find us temporary accomodation, but beyond that no one ever bothers about us at all.
Juom
Now we were all ordered to evacuate, Hong bong and we were also told (through the newspapers and over the radio) that if we did not go we should be made to go, also that there would be no discrimination and no exemptions, all women and children would go, the only women who would be allowed to stay would be the nursing sisters and those in very essentiel posts, and we were told that we could best help our country by going quietly and making the best of things - - and we proved our worth by doing this, after five days notice, we left, our husbands and homes, end could only bring very little luggage with us too, not knowing what the future held, although nersonally hundreds of us could not see why we
were being sent way, denorted really it amounted to from our own homes.
Too late we found out that the Government had not played fair
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