The Investigation on the Relief Activities from the Municipal Office in Wartime
—— Based on the Study of the Municipal Health Archives

?

The Investigation on the Relief Activities from the Municipal Office in Wartime
—— Based on the Study of the Municipal Health Archives

Qiu Zhiren

(Shanghai Normal University,Shanghai200234)

Ⅰ.Overview on refugee relief activities from Municipal Office

As stated by scholar Zu-an Zheng,during the Sino-Japanese war in 1937,International Settlement,(hereinafter referred as “Settlement”) has had two impacts of refugee tide.The first one was during “The 813 Incident” when Hongkou and Zhabei were the places for fierce battle between China and Japan,so a large number of the Chinese and foreign residents distributed along Hongkou,Zhabei and Yangshupu,flowed into Public Concession,and the French Concession on the south of Suzhou creek.The second wave was between October and November.According to the international federation of Red Cross of Shanghai,at the end of August in 1937,the number of Chinese refugees flowing into International Settlement and the French Concession was up to 700000 people at the peak.In November,more than 137000 poor refugees settled in 175 refugee camp.On the day of the war,Shanghai International Relief Institution was set up,sooner immediately preparing for refugee shelters.Until February 31st 1938,there had been 191 shelters in the Public Concession.The author believes that Shanghai international Red Cross statistics to be reliable,to November,1937,international settlement,(public concessions,French concession) about 175 refugee shelters,then gradually reduced.) covering 95000 refugees,42 shelters in French Concession,covering 47000 people,with a total number of 142500 refugees in these two concessions.We can see that the concessions in a “neutral” position can partly cut off the war in certain region,which has become a temporary shelter of the Shanghai refugees during the Anti-Japanese War.

With an influx of refugees,refugee affairs committee,first of all,focused on providing suitable shelters for the refugees.Except for trying their best to provide shelter for the refugees,the committee has also helped to arrange the evacuation of refugees,which started from August 1937 when refugees began to entering concessions.In September 1937,at that time the war has been going on for four weeks.Dr.Robertson,working for evacuation of refugees,reported to the Municipal Council that they have already evacuated the refugees by land and sea and partly evacuated the refugees to the countryside,which greatly reduced the burden of the concession.However,“mostly left refugees are in the upper class,and a large number of poor refugees are difficult to evacuate ”.It was because of refugees evacuation work in the beginning of the war that reduced the number of refugee population in International Settlement,eased the pressure on the refugee shelters and maintained the balance of the concession to the greatest extent.In October 1938,there were 77166 refugees in the Public Concessions.

The year of 1939 can be described as a period of shutting down and combination of the concessions.The following table reflects the change of the number of the refugees in International Settlement from February 1939 to May 1940,from which we can see that the number of shelters showed a trend of significantly decreasing.It is the international Red Cross,Shanghai municipal and Shanghai joint disaster relief charities and so on that jointly organized and implemented refugees severance and migration plan,cut off the small shelters,incorporating some shelters,then did centralized management with strict management standards,making the number of asylum decreased from 61 in February 1939 to only 28 a year after that in February 1940,reduced more than a half of them,at the same time the number of refugees living in a refugee camp has reduced 20000.

Ⅱ.The investigation of the specific content of the refugee relief activities

1.Health inspection

As for the Health Department which was responsible for the management of public health in the concession,faced with this sudden war and followed by surging wave of refugees,they adopted the most rapid and most basic job — health check.They sent the inspector to check the accommodation,diet,diseases,medical situation of the refugees.When audit each refugee shelters,according to the regulations of the Health Department,the information that health inspectors have filled in the form must be as detailed as possible.Form the name of the shelter to the number of keeping yesterday,from the number of the asylum today to today's death toll to the real number of refugees,from today’s number of vaccination to the number of going to,it should all have the exact data.In addition,for refugees,hospital deaths,today keep sick refugees within this three kinds of people,they should fill in the names of the refugees,gender,age,disease,and onset date,name of the hospital,whether on isolation or not and so on.And to the column of whether the doctor present today,if not,they should write the reason and other important matters,finally with health inspectors’ signature and the shelter manager’s signature.Health inspection is the basic content of the refugee relief activities form the Municipal Office in wartime.

2.Prevention of infectious diseases

Prevention of infectious diseases is an important content of municipal refugee relief in wartime.Compared with smallpox and cholera,measles is a kind of infectious disease whose transmission rate is extremely high,usually reaching peaks in April.But in 1937,in the first instance of a refugee camp is at the end of August.Due to the high infectious rate of disease,it is difficult to prevent the spread of diseases in the crowded shelters.In the second week of October,it still reached the peak of transmission of infectious diseases,a total number of more than 1000 deaths from the record.Until November 20,the health department's report showed that the public's attention was totally attracted to the measles epidemic and the disease has affected the whole Shanghai.Measles among children spread faster.In the refugee camp of Public concessions,at least 5000 children under the age of five got more chance of suffering from measles,with 154 children dead from measles till November 27.

Measles is not invincible,however.There are still ways to prevent or mitigate the severity of disease attack in medical science,which is that the infectious patients must be injected serum of an adult who has the history of measles and has now recovered within 9 days.

3.Advice of food nutrition

As the cold weather gradually coming,although the smallpox vaccination is going very well,cholera is in a recession,facing with hundreds of thousands of refugees in shelters,foreign and from doctors still believe that there will be a possibility of the infectious diseases such as smallpox and typhoid.The reason for that deduction is not because of the lack of money to buy drug and offer medical care.All medical service in shelters is free,and the Chinese charitable organizations provide them with food.

In view of the lack of food nutrition of the refugees,the Health Office also summarized “tips of supplementary food to prevent the disease,” hoping to get the shelter manager's attention and implementation.

In terms of food aid,the Health Department not only said but did practical action.The most common action was to supply cod liver oil.The Health Office distributed cod liver oil to the shelters,then assigned to each one by their medical service crew in the shelters.In the early days of the war,all shelters once only supplied flour.After intervention of the health department,the situation improved.The daily staple food of most refugees was half rice and half pasta.It is worth mentioning that with an effort of the Health Office,a total of about 22,000 pounds of fresh milk was provided to infants and young children from the establishment of shelters in the public concession to December 1937.Even in the most intense and dangerous period of the war,there were still 50 pounds of milk supplied from the dairy every day.In addition,because the generous donation of the American Red Cross,there were about 350 pounds of composite milk that was distributed to shelters,and supplied condensed milk to children.

Ⅲ.Analysis of the municipal council’s refugee relief activities in the war

As an “international community”,the concession announced “neutral” after the outbreak of the war in August 1937.At the beginning of the war,the Municipal Council allowed refugees into the concession.Until November 10th,it officially announced refugees were forbidden from entering because of overburden,but in fact it was not strictly enforced.Regardless of whether or not to allow the refugees to enter the concession,I think the concession authorities was only to maximize public safety and health of concession,so as to maintain the concession of stability and ensure the life safety of expatriate.However,when a large number of refugees were packed into the concession,in the face of the enormous challenges of public safety and health,sense of responsibility was reflected in each agency and staff.

We see that at the beginning of the war,the Municipal Council paid attention to refugees who entered the concession and quickly organized the Refugee Council.This was the agency that the Municipal Council specially established to treat all refugee related affairs.I believe that the Commission had indeed played a role of supervision and guidance in the early stage,and put forward a unique view of the relief work of the refugees.The Commission's role was weakened later,but the health department under the management of the Municipal Council affected the management of all refugee relief organizations from beginning to end and did a lot of outstanding work for refugees' accommodation,health care and shelter management together with them.

Second,in effect analysis of the Municipal Council relief activities,we found that,despite the Municipal Council did the refugee relief very carefully,but in fact,it was far from satisfactory.How so?

In April 1938,a health Inspector in the western district pointed out that it was not reasonable to expect the refugees to clean spontaneously and manage themselves,because the current health situation was due to their appearance.“Because of the ignorance and bad habits,they put themselves in serious danger of public safety and public health,but public health officials did not approach to mandatory supervision to them.” Therefore,it was because of the ignorance of the requirement of public health and Chinese inherent bad habits in traditional health habits,the shelters they live in were always in very unsanitary conditions.In 1938,“the 65,507 refugees lived in 131 asylums that were not entirely suitable for the purpose of refugee shelters.It created a situation which was beyond the control of health institution”.If the Municipal Council forced these refugees to leave from the buildings out as the homeowners' hope,in the actual situation,due to the absence of any of the health supervision measures,tens of thousands of refugees would most likely to become “nasty alley dwellers”,It would be even worse for health and epidemic prevention work.“The uncontrollable situation would make the Municipal Council trapped in this work and unable to extricate themselves”.

Then,the Municipal Council had always followed the “forgiveness policy for trouble maker”.For these less fortunate lives,the Municipal Council took practical action to express sympathy and tolerance.In the implementation of health management policies in refugee shelters,the usual way that the Municipal Council advocated was to remind and persuasion,but obviously,they are not enough to understand the Chinese people.The situation that the Municipal Council expected that soon after,the roads were clean and the homeless lived in clean shelters or barracks,but it did not appear throughout.Therefore,we find that,because of the war,Chinese and Western civilizations fiercely collide again,the Municipal Council was forced to be with a tolerant attitude to face it.

Third,throughout the refugee relief activities by the Municipal Council from August 1937,we can found that these relief activities embodied a “reminder” identity of the Municipal Council,the usual way that the Municipal Council advocated was to remind and persuasion and they serviced as a “reminder”.

So,why not the Municipal Council use compulsory means to manage the refugees as a “ruler”? We know that these refugee shelters were on the site of the Municipal Council of the public concession and if they imposed on health systems and policies,the effect might be much better.Actually,as early as September 1937,a newspaper in the French Concession commented this.They believed that “Provisions in the articles of association of the land prevented the use of high pressure forces.” I think that many practical reasons caused the “reminder” identity of the Municipal Council,including politics,international relations,and funds and so on.

Ⅳ.Epilogue

Lao Tzu said:“Cardiff soldiers,ominous.”O(jiān)n August 13,1937,the Japanese invaded Shanghai.A large number of people have been displaced and exiled.In order to live,they fled into the public concession that belonged to the neutral ground to seek refuge and became refugees.I think that the same as the refugees in the “security zone” in southern city,these refugees had been basically settled and relief in the concession to ensure the most basic survival needs.They are the lucky people among from the misfortune people.The Municipal Council,together with the Shanghai International Red Cross,Shanghai Charity joint disaster relief and other Chinese and foreign charitable organizations,helped Chinese refugees,especially in the life and health,to protect their lives.Whether conscious or not,in fact,there were full of responsibility,tolerance and persuasion.They still gave the refugees in the plight who suffer from hunger and cold with warmth and hope in a certain extent.Although the concession is colony beyond dispute settlement,but on the issue of the wartime refugee assistance by the Municipal Council,we should objectively understand and evaluate.

Notes:

〔1〕“Staff of Refugee Committee”，August 17，1937，U1-16-1045-19.

〔2〕“Concentration Accommodation for Chinese Refugees”，August 20，1937，U1-16-1039-56.

〔3〕“Resume of the Medical Situation in Refugee Camps”，September 6，1937，U1-16-1039-3.

〔4〕“Refugee Situation Greatly Improved During 1939”，The North China Daily News， March 5，1940.

〔5〕“Staff of Refugee Committee”，August 17，1937，U1-16-1045-19.

〔6〕“Letter for Dr. Jordan”，March 24，1939，U1-16-1045-80.

〔7〕“Insanitary Conditions in the Settlement”，April 14，1938，U1-16-1055-4、5.

〔8〕“Insanitary Conditions in the Settlement”，April 28，1938，U1-16-1055-11、12.

〔9〕“Refugee Camps in the International Settlement”，Joural de Shanghai，September 24，1937，U1-16-1031-73.

〔10〕“Report about the Refugee Situation”，April 23，1938，U1-16-1039 -122、123.

〔11〕“Refugees：A Satisfied Chinese”，The North China Daily News，July 17，1938.

〔12〕“Refugee Work Performed by PHD”，1940，U1-16-1039-(142-146).

〔13〕“Closure of Refugee Camps”，March 14，1942，U1-16-1039-168.

Based on the municipal health archives from Shanghai Municipal Archives,this article investigated the content,meaning and nature of the relief activities which Shanghai municipal did to the refugees in wartime.Although there is no doubt that the existence of the Concession consisted of the sense of colonization,when it comes to the relief activities from Municipal Office in wartime,we should give them objectively understanding and evaluation.

the Municipal Office;the Health Office;the relief activities

About the author：Qiu Zhiren, doctoral candidate at Shanghai Normal University.