FO371-27622 — Page 58

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I.

1

GENERAL STATEMENT

Precautionary measures to deal with the possible evacuation

of women and children, both British and American, from Hong Kong

to Manila were taken during the first week in June. At this time

conversations began between the Office of the U. S. High Commis-

sioner,

Tentative

the U. S. Army authorities, and the Red Cross.

preparations were discussed. The Commanding General at Fort Wm.

McKinley appointed an officer to prepare a plan of cooperation

under which that Post could be used as a temporary shelter for

evacuees where they could be taken immediately upon debarkation,

and as a clearing center from which they could be properly dis-

tributed to more permanent quarters. It had been pointed out to

the Commanding General of the Philippine Department at the time

of the evacuation of Shanghai in the fall of 1937, and the

threatened evacuation of Hong Kong in September, 1939, that,

with the arrival, on short notice, of evacuated civilians in

large numbers from points on the Asiatic mainland, it would be

impossible to distribute them, in small groups, from the ships

and the piers, to scattered quarters without great discomfort

and delay, and that it would be desirable to establish a con-

centration center from which they could be cleared in an orderly

manner.

The Commanding General of the Philippine Department agreed,

after a number of conferences at Army Headquarters, to a

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