What was the public's reaction to this?
In her work Multi-racial Hong Kong, Vivian Kong says that ‘The wider Chinese population appeared to be indifferent towards the evacuation.'
We ask her how she comes to this conclusion...
In conversation with Vivian Kong: Why were the general Chinese population of Hong Kong indifferent towards the evacuation policy?
In this interview, Dr Vivian Kong discusses...
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In her research, she found that in local Chinese-owned newspapers published for Hong Kong, the evacuation barely hit the headlines. But for British newspapers, the evacuation was very dominant. It appeared to be a 'British matter'.
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She discusses her interviews with family relatives who were residents of Hong Kong during the evacuation who said it was a 'British matter'.
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Wide opinion the evacuation was premature...
Primary source: South China Morning Post, newspaper article complaining about the evacuation, 25th of July 1940
"Whether the evacuation was, in fact, premature is the first question the authorities must answer. Three weeks have passed and the feared attack seems even less likely"
‘Public Grievance’, South China Morning Post, 25 July 1940, p. 10, https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/public-grievance/docview/1764472115/se-2?accountid=9730 [accessed 13 April 2025].
Another reason as to why Chinese communities were complacent towards not being evacuated was there was a view amongst both British and Chinese communities that the evacuations was too presumptuous.
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When comparing the timeline of events of World War Two in Hong Kong to Britain, students can make inferences as to why the public argued that the evacuation of Hong Kong was unnecessary because there was no invasion of Hong Kong until over a year after the first evacuation. Whilst Japanese troops had based themselves north of the border of Hong Kong, Japan had not yet declared war with Britain. Japan declared war on Britain and the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbour on December 8th 1941, over a year after the first evacuation of Hong Kong in June 1940.
Where as in the UK, the first evacuation was on 1st of September 1939, which was then followed very quickly by Britian declaring war on Germany on the 3rd of September 1939.
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There was a period from the first evacuation of Hong Kong on 29th of June 1940 where nothing happened, until the declaration of war between Japan and the British Empire.
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As a result, there was large discontent towards the evacuation, and there were refusals of evacuation and appeals to return home, as many would much rather be at home with their families. There were petitions organised by a body representing the husbands and relatives of women and children who were evacuated to 'investigate the matter thoroughly and give instructions for the return of their wives and families’. (ref 1)
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Primary source: Interview with Marjorie Betsy Grindley
Marjorie lived in Hong Kong during the second world war from the age of 18 when she moved there with her family due to her fathers new job. She discussed how many were not worried that the war would come to Hong Kong.
'When France fell everybody was absolutely down in the dumps, they just didn’t know, that was the real bad thing about it, cus couldn’t see in anyway what was gonna happen to Hong Kong, not realising that the Japanese were on the way down’
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'After the evacuation, nothing happened at all'
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Imperial War Museum: Sound: © IWM (4653) British nurse with Auxiliary Nursing Service in Hong Kong, 12/1941; internee in Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong, 12/1941-8/1945, https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004613 [date accessed 13 April 2025]
Activity: Timeline organisation and comparison
Many did not want to be evacuated; they wanted to stay at home with their families.
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Have students complete this print-off timeline activity to help them consolidate their understanding of the order of events in WWII and why civilians of Hong Kong may have felt the evacuation was unecessary
Complaints against racist evacuation scheme
'The Chinese and Eurasian communities were equally vociferous in their condemnation of the evacuation order, claiming that it was a blatant example of discrimination. Furthermore, why should the Hong Kong taxpayers finance the evacuation of a small and privileged section of the white colonial elite when it was apparent that the vast majority of the colony's citizens would be neglected and left undefended when the Japanese invaded?'​​
Kent Fedorowich 'The Evacuation of Civilians from Hong Kong and Malaya/Singapore, 1939–42', in A Great Betrayal? The Fall of Singapore Revisited, edited by Farrell Brian and Hunter Sandy (2002), p. 104.
A right to evacuation and safety
Think back to the first page about British citizenship in Hong Kong. All Chinese people born and in Hong Kong were protected under the British crown and could legally attain British citizenship if they fit the criteria. They paid taxes, contributed to war efforts, and demonstrated their affiliation with the nation. But when it came down to it, in events such as war, they were not protected by the crown as much as their pure European counterparts were, whose women and children were evacuated.
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They were left to their owns devices to evacuate, which could have been much easier with a British passport. But claiming one was prevented by language, class and policy barriers.
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Eurasian women and children had a right to British citizenship, and even if they managed to claim it, they would have still been denied evacuation, which was only for pure Europeans.
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But no matter your race or nationality, those vulnerable deserved a right to evacuation and safety.
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After the announcement of evacuation, there was quick retaliation in newspapers in early July 1940 against the evacuation's racist agenda.
Primary source: South China Morning Post, newspaper article 'Being British' 1st of July 1940
‘several thousands of British subjects not of pure European descent are serving in defence of the Colony’
‘they pay the same taxes as any other section: they will have to bear their share of the cost of the evacuation, whether they participate in it or not’
‘Being British’, South China Morning Post, 01 July 1940, 10. Retrieved from https://bris.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/being-british/docview/1764465887/se-2 [accessed 13 April 2025]
Primary source: South China Morning Post, newspaper article 'Chinese Women and Children' 6th of July 1940
'It is felt that on humanitarian grounds Chinese women and children should be speedily and safely evacuated before real danger threatens’
'Chinese Women and Children' South China Morning Post, 06 July 1940, 7. Retrieved from https://bris.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/chinese-women-children/docview/1764467766/se-2 [Accessed 13 April 2025]
Whether civilians of Hong Kong wanted to evacuate or not, Japan did invade on the 8th of December 1941 and caused destruction for those who were left behind by the racist evacuation scheme. ​ The British government saw that the colony was vulnerable and, therefore, did not want to risk the British women and children civilised there. Evacuation is a difficult process to decide to do, and it was not taken lightly. The government, therefore were willing to risk Chinese women and children but not European British women and children
References
1. The National Archive, 'China and the Modern World: War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office: Hong Kong, Original Correspondence': CO 129/589/18, Complaints against Evacuation Scheme: 1940 Nov. 23–1941 Oct. 24, November 23, 1940–October 24, 1941,
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/KJDXZU916815999/CFER?u=univbri&sid=bookmark-CFER&xid=b91ec992&pg=3 [accessed 13 April 2025].