The problem of refugees is one that is becoming more and more acute every day, and there is hardly a country left in which it has not been felt in one way or another in the last two, years. The present review deals comprehensively, within the narrow compass of 114 pages, with the situation as it existed at the beginning of World War IL The scope is world-wide, and to local readers possibly the pages dealing with refugees in China—Chinese, Russian and those from Germany and Austria—will be of special interest. The author deals compendiously with Chinese migrations resulting from the present undeclared war:
The vast movement of refugees into the Western provinces would probably be impossible without some government help. Official refugee stations have been established on the Hunan-Kweichow border, where road money is given to the destitute, who are told where to go and what to do when there. The migration is for local consumption under a widespread system of ce-operative societies, and partly by the removal' of whole industries. As soon as hostilities broke out in Shanghai, the Government persuaded industrialists to move their plants to the interior, and were prepared to pay subsidies towards transportation and other expenses. Some of them did move their factories to, or establish branches in, the interior. Architects, Contractors, and engineers of all kinds have since flocked to Yunnan, Kweichow, Szechuen, and even Shansi, to develop the hitherto undeveloped provinces.
Sir John goes on to describe the westward movement of Chinese universities and secondary schools. Altogether, he refers to the movement into the Western provinces as the brighter side of the picture.
.... For many thousands there was no "Such escape, and there was nothing to be done but to remain within the fighting zone.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.