Hongkong, Aug. 19.
There ís still no answer to the petition asking for the return of the evacuees, though a number of women and children have already come back from Manila, having managed to obtain special dispensation. Most of the others, who are far in the majority, are on their way to Australia or have already arrived there.
In a review of the economic results of the evacuation, the "South China Morning Post," after asserting that the appearance of wealth in the Colony is largely superficial and part of it "parasitical," comments: "There are cries of ruin on every hand because a few thousand European women and children have left." It seems that Hongkong's wealth was derived from the mutual laundry industry. Few of the evacuees are wives of millionaires: yet an astonishing number of people lived on the crumbs that fell from their tables.... There is still a lot of money in the Colony, and in time, no doubt, this will acquire nev spending in replacement of the money that goes out. It cannot be denied, however, that the war developments have been costly to this Colony—and the outward flow of capital has yet to reach its maximum.
"No reliable figures of the exodus of population are available. As ever those of greatest economic' value have gone, and these who could more readily be spared are still with us, a constant drain upon a reduced purse. The transfer of the official evacuees alone has cost a large sum for passages—perhaps as much as $700,000 if the average is as low as $200 a head. Their upkeep while away will. at an estimated average of one Australian pound weekly per head, cost £14,000 month or £168,000 per year, or over $2,000,000. From the economic viewpoint it does not matter whether this is paid by husbands or by taxpayers: it is invisible export—money sent out of the Colony which would otherwise have been spent here.... What has infuriated the community is the Government's seeming indifference to these economic consequences of pi mature precautions, and to the individwal's problems generally.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.