£30,000,000 FOR CHILDREN
By A CORRESPONDENT IN AUSTRALIA
It will hardy be possible for the United Nations to deal with the problem adequately, but Australia is determined to do her share up to the limit of her ability. That is why she is willing to spend £30,000,000 on providing 5o,000 of these children with a home. The migration of children to Australia, of course, will not be limited to the official scheme. Non-official child migration organisations will continue their work. But most of these deal only with small numbers of British children and have not the facilities to handle a large-scale plan. Normally, since Austra'ians are primarily of British stock, children from Great Britain will be pre- ferred under the Government scheme. In the early war days we were happy to offer haven to about Soo British children. Some have since been adopted by Australian guardians, but most have lived as guests in private homes, free to return to Britain when conditions improve or to stay on in Australia if they and their parents wish.
But the Commonwealth Government realises that the people of Britain have a deeply vested interest forged by the bonds of common suffering in those children orphaned by the Nazi terror weapons. Consequently some children from European countries will also be given the opportunity of becoming Australians, free to enjoy all the benefits of life. The method of selecting these children will be worked out by a special mission which it is planned to send abroad shortly. The leader of the mission will be a public man with wide experience and initiative, and he will be assisted by child welfare and migration experts. This mission will negotiate with the British and European Governments and such international authorities as the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the International Red Cross and the Inter-Governmental Committee on Migration. To it• will fall the responsibility of examining and • transporting the selected children.
It is proposed that 17,000 children a year should be selected for the first three post-war years. That is the target—but the Common- wealth Government will be glad for the mission to continue its work for more than three years if there are more children available. On present plans British children between six and fourteen years of age and European children between six and twelve years of age will be eligible for selection. These children will be brought to Australia in parties of Soo, and if the programme is adhered to 34 parties will land each year. Experts consider that each ship party will need two doctors, a dentist, two nurses and thirty-eight escorts. Allowing for this staff making three trips a year, 23 doctors, II dentists, 124 nurses and 431 escorts will be needed annually.
On arrival here, the legal guardianship of the children will be vested in the Minister for the Interior, who will have power to
delegate his authority if necessary. This Minister will' also have discretionary power to grant naturalisation without charge to minors where such a step is necessary to the child's welfare and advance- ment. Normally, private adoptions will be discouraged, but in approved cases they will be permitted. It is proposed to set up a special section of the Department of the Interior—the Common- wealth Depariment handling migration—to look after these children. It will be under the control of a Director of Child Migra- tion and will be adequately staffed by specialists in all phases of child welfare.
To he'p the children to settle down—and in the case of foreign children overcome language difficulties—they will go from the ship to special reception centres, most of them former army and air force camps in the metropolitan areas or near country towns. Thence as soon as they are acclimatised—and foreign children have learned some English—they will go to normal Australian State Schools. Later they will go on to hostels in 4o to 5o Australian cities and towns with populations of at least 2,500, and adequate educational facilities. The intention is that half the children living at these hostels should be from overseas and half native Australians whose homes are too far away for them to live at home while attend- ing secondary schools. It is felt that the mingling of these children will lead to the youngsters from abroad entering fully and freely into the social and community life of the town. To help them, too, certain of the trained hostel staffs will be the people who have been with them since they landed, thus ensuring continuity of guidance and supervision.
Essential to the success of the scheme will be the selection of skilled teachers, cottage " mothers " and other staff. The Govern- ment is determined that these new citizens shall have the best that is available, and it will not skimp a few pounds to make sure of this. At these hostels, civic pride and the duties of a citizen will be stressed. To this end, also, the townspeople and town authorities will be brought to look on the children as a special and honourable responsi- bility for their town. So it is proposed to encourage local trade unions, employers' organisations, Rotary clubs, and similar organisa- tions to sponsor children when they pass from schools to jobs, and to help them make a success of the career or trade they have chosen. In addition, voluntary associations like the Boy Scouts, the Girl Guides, Toe H, and the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., will assist with the recreation side of the scheme—particularly with holiday camps. In all its preliminary plans the Government has underlined the fact that it does not look to the scheme to provide a cheap source of farm labourers and domestic servants. It has pledged itself to giving the children full vocational opportunities.
To estimate accurately the total expenditure involved is hard. However, assuming that the children are brought to Australia at an average of nine to ten years, the total cost of the scheme over an eight-year period will be about £26,357,000, plus the cost of building or converting accommodation. On the internal accountancy side the plan is that the Commonwealth will meet the major share of the costs, and that the State Governments will contribute towards educa- tional and accommodation costs. Details of how costs are to be shared are now being worked out.
Sponsors of the scheme have been criticised mainly on the ground that it is " institutional." Their answer is that proper supervision of any large-scale private adoption scheme is impracticable ; that the
official scheme will prevent any risk of exploitation ; and that the careful selection of properly trained staff and the mingling of the migrant children with Australian youngsters from private homes will overcome the " institutional " outlook. Of course, the benefits of the scheme will not be one-way. With 3,000,000 square miles to defend, it is essential to Australia's future security that she build up her population beyond the present 7,300,000. Although there has been a wartime growth in the birth-rate, the natural increase rate of 55,000 to 56,000 a year is not high enough to increase our numbers beyond 8,5oo,000 in twenty years. After the war it will be difficult to encourage large-scale adult migration as Britain and European countries will want their men and women for recon- struction work. So children are clearly the best source of the best type if new citizen for the world's youngest civi:isation in the oldest continent.,
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