The League of Nations
Child Welfare - [Dame Rachel Crowdy, with her varied international activities, hirdlY needs an introduction" to readers of this –page. No one knows more of Child Welfare, her chosen subject this week.—En. Spectator.] First came the Congres des Patronages in Belgium; meetings of semi-official associations which dealt primarily with the after-care of prisoners of all ages. At these Congresses dis- cussions took place as to the particular type of child who might be considered as delinquent. Then Switzerland planned to set up a central office to deal with all aspects of child welfare from an international standpoint, and later the Belgian Government organized the first International Conference for the Promotion of Child Welfare at Brussels a year before the outbreak of war. In 1921 a second International Conference for the Promotion of Child Welfare was held in Brussels and, as a result of this Conference, an Association was founded to co-ordinate the efforts of those engaged in child welfare. The International Child Welfare work passed to Geneva in 1924.
The Child Welfare Committee set up by the Council is one of the most recent Committees to be established by the League in connexion with its efforts towards social reform. One turns with relief to its work, for here is a clear issue. There is no primary question of destroying an existing and pften unappreciated evil such as faces one at every turn in attempting to suppress the Traffic in Women and Children for the Traffic in Opium. The Child Welfare Committee aims at the creation of good social conditions for the child of every country.
It has been a hard task to get " the international child " adopted by the League, but he is established now as a 0-otege of the family of nations, and the fact that fifty odd States Members of the League have accepted responsibility for him gives him his birthright.
The provision of better social, health and industrial con- ditions for the new generation must do much towards estab- lishing the peace of the world, for if the spectre of poverty, misery and ill-health stalks in the subconscious mind of the Child of to-day, it will surely haunt the memory of the man or woman of to-morrow. Who will deny that the vagabonds of the world, the spreaders of dissension and the breakers of 'peace are drawn from the uncared for, the misunderstood and the unwanted ?
At the meeting of the Child Welfare Committee held very recently in Geneva some interesting discussions took place. Controversy raged in the Committee round the subject of biological education for the young. Everywhere youth is asking for better instruction on the foundations of human relationship. Youth on every side is saying, " Teach us our facts right so that we may not find them out for ourselves in a wrong manner." Everywhere, in every country, the necessity for the education of the adolescent in a better sense of its moral responsibility is felt. Yet, in spite of this fact, the Committee as a whole did not find it possible to make general recom- mendations on the necessity of such education. " Was it not a mother's duty alone to explain to her child the difficulties ahead of it ? " was urged by the old school. By the new, What is the position where parents will not or cannot give the necessary instruction ? Is the child in these difficult post-War days to be left to sow its own field, with what may prove, in years to come, an unprofitable crop ? " No decision was taken by the Committee, but for the first time at an international governmental gathering there had been full and frank discussion of this thorny but ever-present subject.
Time was given for consideration of a document prepared by the Secretariat, which set out the protective laws for the illegitimate child in various States. Old laws which have clung like dead burrs to the skirts of progress were examined in the light of day. They seemed almost fantastic to the listener ; such as a clause from the Civil Code of a Province of one of our Dominions, which states that the mother of an illegitimate child may only be given the right of tutoring that child if the application for her to do so is made by a board of seven male relatives ! The other extreme is embodied in the old Dutch Common law of South Africa ; " No child is a bastard to its mother." Perhaps nothing brought flame to one so forcibly the difficulties with which the illegitimate child has to contend than this grouped presentation of facts which went to show that the illegitimate child is in some countries still the responsibility neither of the 'father nor of the mother nor even sometimes of the State.
If the Child Welfare Committee can, by its impartial presentation of such facts, create among the States Members of the League a public opinion in favour of improved legislation for the illegitimate child it will not have met in vain. Two other burning questions of the day, recreation for the child and the adolescent and the effect of the cinema on the child, contributed to the interest of the Committee.
In the course of the meeting new inquiries were proposed.
One, the Committee recommended, should be carried out imme- diately, the other at a later date after more consideration had been given to the problems involved. The first of these studies would be to ascertain to what extent provision is being made for children who need protection against moral and social dangers owing to their surroundings and what results are being obtained by the various methods employed. It was foreseen that such a preliminary study would undoubt- edly lead, at a later date, to an inquiry on a much bigger scale. Seven or eight countries—probably Denmark, Germany, England, France, Czechoslovakia, Canada and the United States of America—would be selected for study on the spot, and the Governments of those countries would be invited to afford facilities to the expert appointed. Voluntary organizations and any persons able to furnish useful infor- mation would also be consulted.
The second inquiry, consideration of which was postponed to the coming session, was in connexion with a proposed extension of the investigation made recently by the Inter- national Prison Commission into Juvenile Courts and their auxiliary services. It was, of course, understood by the Committee that the two studies are so closely connected that they may ultimately become one.
In addition to its work of documentation and research, the Committee has in course of preparation three draft Conventions, one for the repatriation of minors who have escaped from the authority of their •parents or guardians ; another for the relief of minors of foreign nationality, and a third which deals with the execution of judgments relating to maintenance payable on behalf of children by persons responsible for their support who have deserted them and gone abroad. It is not the first time that efforts have been made to draw up such Conventions, but they are perhaps nearer to their fulfilment to-day than they have ever been.
One thing alone seemed lacking to the Committee, and that was an Advisory Committee of Youth. Few things are impossible, and the day may not be far off when youth itself, working through this young League of Nations, may be called upon to advise on those things which most affect its happiness, its future and its well-being.
RACUEL E. Cnownic.
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