Repatriation.
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found themselves transferred to a general pool; and others, though urgently needed in the posts to which they had been allotted, had, perforce, to be assigned as stops to gaps which were even wider. A third result had qualities which outweighed the virtues of improvisation. It involved responsibility being thrown more and more upon the shoulders of those who were least accus- tomed to bear it. Failure or delay in the implementation of the War Establishment was repeatedly remedied by temporary local appointments. This enforced policy was its own justification; for the results achieved provided encouraging evidence of the ability and the willingness of Colonial peoples to take a greater share in the Administration of their own territories. In those difficult days the Administration relied upon its Chinese and Portuguese assistants. Without them the personnel position would have been untenable, and it can hardly be denied that they thereby established credentials which it would be difficult for any future government to ignore.
16. More and more the Administration was forced into the departmental pattern of the pre-war Civil Government. Not only was it the only shape which the community generally was accustomed to recognize, but the absence of serious interruption in the progression towards normal conditions soon made it the only appropriate system. Such sections of War Establishment Branches as the Chinese Secretariat quickly assumed their peace- time independence; and other departments for which no provision had been made in the War Establishment were re-established in their pre-war form. Individual appointments, also, tended in- creasingly to assume the functions of their Civil Government equivalents, with the result that to the general public the distinc- tion between a Military and a Civil Administration appeared at times to be little more than a matter of nomenclature.
17. One of the Administration's most pressing obligations was the repatriation of some 2,770 ex-internees. This intricate and abiding problem was rendered more complicated by the general demand for all forms of shipping which followed upon the sudden end of the Japanese War. The consequent delay in the clearance of potential repatriates served the Administration well in one respect, since Government officials and members of essential service organizations who elected or were obliged to
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defer their return to the United Kingdom provided an experienced and available nucleus with which the inadequately implemented Civil Affairs establishment could be re-inforced.
18. By the 17th September, 1,014 civilian repatriates had been embarked by the "Empress of Australia" and two hospital ships. Between the 17th September and the 4th October, a further six ships were despatched carrying 1,031 Europeans and 52 Indians. Thereafter clearance was slow and complicated by the emergence of unforeseen categories of individuals whose claim to repatriation privileges involved matters of policy not adequate- ly covered by the relevant directives, and by the housing of destitute persons from Stanley Camp who were to remain in the Colony,
19. By the beginning of December a further 386 Europeans and 47 Indians had been despatched in fourteen ships. Over the three months period a total of 126 persons were repatriated by air. Some 340 persons, including dependants, remained tempor- arily in order to assist the Administration or to clear up their private affairs, and a further 120 who might have been eligible for repatriation elected to remain in Hong Kong permanently.
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