TRANSLATION.
35
PRIMA SEZIONE H. 3954/49
Secretariat of State of His Holiness,
Vatican.
The Secretariat of State of His Holiness have learned that the Governor of Hong Kong is proposing to requisition the convent of the Spanish Dominicans situated at Rosary Hill, and that he has intimated to the fathers that they must leave the convent before the 15th of the present month.
In the building in question, in addition to the abɔve- mentioned fathers, there are actually living His Eminence Cardinal Tien, Archbishop of oking, various Spanish Dominicans, and numerous Chinese seminarists who are refugees from the regions of China occupied by the Communist army, constituting in all, with the Filippine, Chinese and Spanish students already resident there, an ensemble of about 200 persons.
Farties interested have begged the Holy See to intervene with the competent British authorities in order that this measure should not be put into effect, or that there should be left at the disposal of the fathers and of the others at least part of the edifice which they are at present occupying.
The Secretariat of State of His Holiness, in bringing the above to the notice of the British Legation at the Holy See, is confident that the latter will be ready to employ its good offices with His Majesty's Government in order that the Governor of Hong Kong may desist from his intention, or at least, postpone a decision which, should it be put into effect, could not fail to produce exptadusa a painful impression in Catholic missionary circles, in view, above all, of the particular circumstance that has made at present the convent of Rosary Hill into a refuge of people already much tried by war.
The Secretariat of State of His Holiness avails itself, etc.
Vatican,
12th July, 1949.
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