ARRIVAL IN SYDNEY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21200, 24 August 1940, Page 16 (Supplement)

ARRIVAL IN SYDNEY

EVACUEES FROM HONG KONG With perambulators, cribs, and bottles, and a limited amount of luggage, women who have been evacuated from Hong Kong have arrived in Sydney with graphic stories of the evacuation. Most of the women have small babies and have had to leave practically everything in their homes in China. A Week’s Notice “We were given a week’s notice to prepare to leave, but wives of Army and Navy men were told only on Saturday that they would have to leave on the following Monday. The evacuation took place in the pouring rain, and the ships were terribly crowded,” said Mrs Henry Hall, whose husband is a civil engineer in Hong Kong, when interviewed by a Press representative. Her two children are with her, and she has had no news of her husband, who hao volunteered for service. Her luggage was limited to two cabin trunks and one suitcase, with half that amount for her children. “Behaved Wonderfully” Another passenger said that the women behaved wonderfully during the evacuation. Most of them left, not knowing when they would see their husbtnds again, and the ships had double the usual number of passengers in the cabins. There were thirteen babies on the ship, the youngest being five months old. She was carried ashore by her mother, Mrs G. Milne, of Hong Kj’.g in a special little baby's blanket zipped up the front.