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British ships were allotted to the remainder of the civilian families, including the Hong Kong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. I was informed that certain Admiralty civilian officers would be sent to assist in the berthing of naval families, and that the Army were applying through His Majesty's Government to the United States Government for permission to send military officers in plain clothes to Manila to arrange the berthing of military families, the High Commissioner having refused a similar request addressed to him by the General Officer Commanding, Hong Kong, through the American Consul-General at Hong Kong.

5.

Refugees who had been accommodated in barracks at Fort William McKinley were being transferred to permanent quarters as rapidly as these could be prepared for them, but it was becoming more and more difficult to find any suitable accommodation. Some empty houses were rented and furnished, but such accommodation was expensive and required several days to arrange, In the meanwhile the United States military authorities continued to press for the removal of all refugees from military quarters owing to the behaviour of certain of the women who had been associating too closely with the American and Filipino soldiers; others had caused a different kind of trouble by treating and even addressing the Filipino soldiers as 'coolie". Matters got to such a state that the Army authorities requested the immediate removal of all refugees from Fort McKinley with the exception of those occupying one barrack-room (numbering about 300) against whose conduct there had been no complaints. The Red Cross moved all the others the following day to cheap hotels and boarding houses in Manila. For the first day or two there was considerable overcrowding and consequent complaints from the refugees, but the excess were quickly moved to other and more comfortable quarters.

6.

On the 19th July I was invited to attend a confer- ence at Army Headquarters when the early removal of those still remaining in Fort McKinley was requested. Mr. Forster said that the Red Cross could and would remove them to civil- ian quarters but pointed out that such transfer would cause considerable and unnecessary discomfort to the refugees, especially to the children, and asked if they could not re- main in the barracks until the sailing of the civilian evacuee ships in the first week of August. The army authorities refused to permit such long delay and I accordingly offered to embark them on the first evacuee ship due to sail 28th July provided they were permitted to remain at Fort McKinley until such time. This the Army authorities agreed to, and I accordingly telegraphed to the Commodore-in-Charge, Hong Kong, informing him of the change in berthing arrangements which I had made. The Commodore at first objected to my proposals, but finally agreed after I explained in detail the reasons therefor. He changed the allocation of ships and assigned two of the Dutch ships and the "Zealandia" to civilian families, the other two to the naval and dock- yard families, while the "Awatea" was to transport all the army families.

7.

As will have been realised, although a certain number of the evacuees were placed in boarding houses and hotels and in private houses, the great majority had to be accommodated in large buildings which were run as barracks or dormitories. The lack of privacy which this entailed, coupled at the beginning with inadequate lavatory accommod-

/ation, though

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