In July 1937 the Japanese Army, which had occupied the northern Chinese province of Manchuria since 1932, invaded the rest of China, taking Peking in August. Hotchkis reluctantly decided to leave China, returning by ship via Japan, then Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India and Iraq to Greece. Another ship took her via Constantinople to Venice, where she caught a night train to Paris, and then back to London, where she arrived in April 1938, some five months after leaving Peking..