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Daily ExpressDEXED

29 JUN 1848

Cutting dated

259

193

Navy seize ships for “evacuation fleet'

Daily. Express Correspondent 28/6

HONGKONG, Friday.

AN armada of passenger steamers was held in Hongkong today when, for the second time in less than a year, British residents of the colony heard an official announcement that evacuation of women and children may be ordered in the near future.

The announcement, broadcast by the colony's

radio

station, said

instructions had been received from of the Secretary

the State for 'Colonies in London advising the Hongkong Government to prepare to remove English women and chil- dren to a place of safety.

This afternoon an order was issued by the naval authorities) placing

under certain ships Admiralty orders, while American and other neutral liners postponed their departure - at the reddest" the Government.

was

the

announced that destination of the refugees would in' the first place be the Philippine Islands, where it is believed that the American authorities have already! expressed willingness temporarily to care for the visitors, while the American Red Cross at Manila are meeting in order to arrange for their reception.

If the situation created by the Japanese military blockade of the colony worsens, the first evacua- tion of families of naval. military and Air Force personnel-will pro- ceed to Manila this week-end. Government spokesmen stressed this evening that at present there These was no cause for alarm measures, he said, were only pre- cautionary.

VALLEY defences

Meanwhile, the colony is still im- proving its defences. Certain pre- cautionary measures have been taken on the roads and in the valleys between Hongkong's several ranges of mountains, which provide the colony's strongest defence against overland attack.

On the border, where Japanese forces have thrown out pickets from end to end. the main body of the Japanese Army will be moved from Shumchun to Shatauko tomorrow, along the frontier road delimited last Sunday by British and Japanese staff officers.

As a Japanese plane, presumably arriving from the air base at Bocca- tigris, flew over Shumchun today, two| Japanese officers who were pas- sengers aboard gave observers on the British side of the frontier their first sight of parachutists-a type of war- fare which it is rumoured the Japanese have been practising dili- gently since Hitler's success in Scan- dinavia and Holland. Both men landed within half a mile of the frontier. The reason for the stunt is unknown.

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