Rev Donald Carlson and his wife Marguerite were American missionaries with the Evangelical Free Church of America in Canton and Hong Kong in the mid 20th century.
The Carlsons arrived in Hong Kong in 1938 to help the Lindquists in the mission work at the Canton Bible Institute. They went to House #23, Cheung Chau, for two years' language study.
In July 1940, Rev Carlson wrote an airmail to the Beacon Magazine in America describing the situation in Hong Kong. Things were tense and uncertain. The British had been ordered to repatriate. Although Americans had not been ordered to repatriate, many had chosen to leave on ships to Manila and the USA; the Mission intended to stay to continue its work but remained prepared for emergencies.
Across the colony, families were unsettled, businesses disrupted, and the Chinese population were especially anxious—some fleeing to villages for safety, others flooding into the city to escape starvation. In Canton, the mission’s relief efforts were continuing to feed over 2,000 refugees daily, yet the scale of need was far exceeding available food and funds, leaving many at risk of starvation.
Despite the turmoil, Carlson emphasized experiencing the peace of God amid the crisis. He had been told that in just one hospital, there had been a daily death rate of 200, the primary cause being undernourishment.
Some who had been in country places reported that the yellow skin of many had turned a grim green because the people had been forced to survive on leaves, bark, and grass. Such a forbidding picture seemed almost inconceivable, but the facts were true and had to be faced.
Don and Marguerite Carlson
Air Mail from Hongkong
23 Cheung Chau Island (sic),
Hongkong,
July 10, 1940.
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In August 1940 when the Cheung Chau Residents' Association put on a concert in the Assembly Hall, Don Carlson sang in a male quartet and Marguerite in a ladies’ sextet, with Ruth Erickson (not Krickson) accompanying on the piano.
The Carlsons were not caught when the Japanese invaded in 1941. Perhaps they were in Canton.
Missionary Doris Ekblad lived with the Carlsons for a while in their flat in Kowloon during her first term in Hong Kong 1953-57.
Sources:
The Tale of Two Steamer Rugs II by Annie Hall-Lindquist
Any Bush Will Do by Doris Ekblad-Olson
Evangelical Beacon, 6th August 1940