PITIFUL PLIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 191, 15 August 1940, Page 6

PITIFUL PLIGHT

HONGKONG EVACUEES A NIGHTMARE VOYAGE FURTHER ORDEAL AT MANILA BRISBANE, Aug. 9. The conditions under which 2000 women and children were evacuated from Hongkong to Manila five weeks ago are described by evacuees who have reached Brisbane as "shocking." "The whole trip from Hongkong (o Manila was a nightmare,” said Mrs. R. P. Morris. "We lived like pigs in dungeons. The three weeks' stay in Manila was a terrible experience.” The evacuees said that the ships in which they left Hongkong were so crowded that they were herded like cattle in every available corner, and slept on camp stretchers jammed side by side in lounges and smoking rooms. In Manila they were packed 30, 40 and 50 at a time into bungalows infested with rats and vermin and having only one or two bathrooms. A child was born in one ship carrying 1100 persons the day after it left Hongkong. Many children suffered from skin disease while in Manila because of coarse and unsuitable food. A boy of six v. as drowned in the surf at Manila while his mother and younger brother stood helpless on the beach.

Many of the evacuees are pitifully placed regarding finances and friends. Most are entirely dependent on funds that will have to be sent to them from Hongkong when their husbands discover where they are.

Living in Manila was found to be twice as expensive as in Hongkong, and the evacuees fear that living in Australia may be much higher. Most of them had to leave so hurriedly that barely sufficient clothes were brought. Others do not know whether their furniture and household goods can be brought to Australia and fear their incomes may not be equal to maintaining two homes at once. Nearly 600 evacuees were brought from Manila to Australia on one ship, of whom 320 are for Sydney and about 250 for Melbourne. All praised the treatment they had received since leaving Manila and the help they had received from the Commonwealth, Queensland and New South Wak.s officials.