Evacuees and Hosts
The new evacuation of children and mothers, prompted by the flying-bomb peril, has now reached considerable dimensions, though its sources are confined to London and the adjacent counties. As they have virtually all the rest of the island to go to, it might have been thought easier to dispose of these evacuees than of the vastly larger number moved at the beginning of the war. And so in the main it has been ; but it should not be overlooked that there are also new and very real difficulties. Most homes in all classes are now getting desperately short of sheets and blankets and towels ; and the larger houses, which in 1939 often took large numbers of children, are now incapacitated for lack of domestic help. And it be said that the host has not now, as in 1939, many years of the obligation to look forward to, the converse is also true that after nearly five years of war most people are tired and below par, and you cannot expect the same resilience from them. Allowing for all these points, the response made has been good ; and there is justification for the hate-campaign—on the lines of town versus country or London versus the provinces—which some of the popul London papers have been working up. Worst of all has be their deliberate suggestion to the men at the front that their wives and children have been or are liable to be treated harshly. It is pity some journalists can never forget that hate is a good seller.
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