13 AUGUST 1937, Page 3

Basque Children's Ebullience A Special Correspondent of The Times has

performed a useful service by investigating the various misdemeanours attributed to the Basque children at present in this country, and putting events that have been unduly magnified by some newspapers in their right proportion. There have undoubtedly been cases in which sections of the children have got out of hand, and the inhabitants of the Welsh village of Brechfa in particular are to be commended on the sang froid with which they faced a rather alarming situation. But The Times correspondent has no doubt diagnosed the situation accurately when he speaks of " a very small unruly minority," and points out that the weakness has been that many of the volunteer helpers at the various camps could not speak the children's language, and that in many cases they were philanthropists rather than disciplinarians—and the problem of discipline, with all corporal punishment barred, must, at the best, be difficult. Now the children have been largely scattered over the country in parties of limited size and their shepherding is a simpler matter.