A Study On Settlement Policy For Refugees Of National Government During The Anti-Japanese War

Refugees were a big social problem during the period of Anti-Japanese war. Due to that these refugeesappeared in wartime, they have unique characteristic, mentality and needs. Thus, traditional chanels of aidcouldn't meet the needs in war time. Under such circumstances, the National Government adjusted aidpolicy correspondingly and brought forth the concept of refugee settlement, namely, to utilize governmentalpower to transport and settle them in safe areas in an organized and planed way, and make them applythemselves to corresponding posts in accordance with their prior professions. Therefore, the goal of helpingthese refugees was obtained. This article makes a reseach of settlement policy of the National Government during theperiod of Anti-Japanese war from three aspects. The first part of the article focuses on the evolution of the guideline of the settlementpolicy made by the National Government. It can roughly be diveded into two stages. The firststage stretches from the breakout of Anti-Japanese war in full scale to the beginning of 1938.During this period, there was no systematic relief policy formed. Only passivism dominatedrelief work in the government. The second stage covers years from the beginning of 1938 tothe end of the war. During this period, the National Government put forward positivesettlement polity, clarified relief goal through production and established relief committeewhich charged relief affairs in wartime. The second part of the article mainly makes a research of concrete measures adopted bythe National Government. First, in accordance with the shift of refugees, governmenttransported them to rear areas through new communicational routes and deployment stations.Second, to provide jobs for refugees and make them participate in production as soon aspossible. This was carried out by alloting lands for refugees in new residential areas,setting uprefugee factory, recruiting refugees as servicemen, helping refugees run small business andproviding them jobs,etc. Last, to workout special relief mode for the old, the young, the sickand the disabled. The third part of the article is related comments on the settlement policy made by theNational Government. The policy achieved certain effects. First, the settlement policysymbolizes a big progress of the National Government in terms of relief concept. Itsystematizes relief means and emphasis the dominant position and responsibility in aidingrefugees. Second, the settlement policy moblizes refugees to participate in production andreinvigorate strength in resisting Japanese. Thirdly, the policy secured the existence of somerefugees, and played active role in stablizing society and comforting people. Fourthly, thepolicy, to a cerain extant, propelled the development of western areas. However, there aresome drawbacks and limitations in the policy. On one hand, the policy was issued withoutconsiderate preparations. On the other, the policy was make for short-term interests instead offor long run. Then, due to the lack of effective supervision, the policy was not carried out well.At last, the implementation of the policy was obstructed for shortage of capitals. Generally speaking, during that special period, the policy turned common aid intopositive production, serious social problem into active elements, and made great contributionto the establishment of modern relief cause. Meanwhile, we shouldn't deny thatcorresponding rules and measures for settlement policy were not made up, the capablity andquality of staff at basic level needed to improvement and the policy itself was notimplemented well. So, this is only a start for establishment of modern relief cause.