THE CHILDREN SAIL
By KENNETH LINDSAY, M.P.
ADMITTEDLY this war has taken more than one erratic turning, but for some reason best known to the hierarchy our evacuation policy has always been unrealistic. The average citizen has never been able to understand the official mind. At the outset of the war the country was divided into three neat and tidy areas, evacuation, neutral and reception, and each had its peculiar system of shelter accommodation. Originally some attempt was made to disperse from the big cities mothers and children, infirm and aged persons, cripples and school-children. Then followed a lull. The second scheme dealt entirely with school children, but alas, the response was meagre and in some areas hostile. With the rapid succession of events in the Low Countries and in France the threat from the enemy became imminent. A new Minister of Health, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, persuaded about a quarter of London children to move into country districts : he also listed certain areas as dangerous and thereby moved a further section of children, including some thousands already evacuated. Today, while the argument for reasonable dispersal still has some validity, the division of the country into three areas with differential shelter accommoda- tion, has neither reason nor prudence.
Now that the battle of Britain has begun a new policy is needed. In order to make defence easier, to relieve parents of anxiety for their children, to provide for fewer mouths and thereby increase shipping accommodation for war materials it is urgent that evacuation should be extended overseas. Fortu- nately the Dominions and the United States of America have made generous offers to give some thousands of our children shelter and education. The Government have now revealed their plans, but it is important that the public should under- stand them and that the Dominions and the United States should work in the closest harmony with our own people.
What in fact does the scheme mean? Instead of moving from London or Liverpool to Sussex or Shropshire, children will go to Nova Scotia, to Ontario, to Victoria, to Auckland, to New England or Virginia. This is something new in migration. It has been decided to accept children between the ages of five and sixteen. I should have preferred the upper age limit of thirteen, because young persons between fourteen and eighteen are part of our war effort, and because there will be additional complications of finding employment for them overseas. Already 40,000 applications have been received from grant- aided schools in England and Wales, and 12,000 from private schools, and in Scotland 15,000 applications have been made. The Dominions have offered to take some 20,000 children, and the United States are at present considering their possible quota. In the case of children from grant-aided schools trans- port will be free, and parents will be asked to pay the British Government, week by week, the same amount as they would contribute under the home evacuation scheme. In the case of children from private schools a reduced passage fare will be charged, and parents are asked to contribute LI a week for upkeep and education.
There are two limiting factors to any scheme, shipping-space and the absorptive capacity of the Dominions. Here lies the root of the problem, and the vulnerable point in the present plans. It is excellent to know that children are likely to pro- ceed at the rate of 8,000 a month, which means about boo,000 a year. But if after one year one per cent. of the children have been removed to safety from our island fortress, it is not a very serious contribution to the main problem. In pre-war years about 300,000 persons crossed the Atlantic from Europe. Every effort, therefore, should be made to increase the volume, to fill every empty boat and to conclude the best possible arrange- ments with the open-hearted people of the New World.
Of all schemes of migration the nomination system has always proved most successful. It is to be hoped that personal and group nomination will be used to the full. Already generous offers have come from doctors, bairisters, professors, butchers and other corporate organisations. In some cases individual arrangements have been made between private schools here and in the Dominions. In view of the importance of after-care these nomination schemes assume an added im- portance. Provincial Governments and voluntary societies will be hard-pressed to meet the new demands put upon them. But fortunately there is ample experience and unbounded kind- ness both in the Dominions and in the United States. Parents at home may feel confident that, with the excellent welfare arrangements made by our Government for the voyage and the evidence of a warm welcome on the other side, their children will find not only a shelter, but a home. It is clear that the children are to be carefully selected and examined before departure. The spectacle of some thousands of British children arriving at different points in the New World has an element of inspiration for the English-speaking world At a time when our streets are growing familiar again with fighting men from the Empire, the wives and mothers of these very men are acting as hosts to children from the Mother country.
In the past there has been too little contact between our education systems. I can remember conducting two expedi- tions across Canada, one of young boys who called themselves Ambassadors of Empire and one of noted headmasters, none of whom had seen a British Dominion before Much good may flow from this new and Unparalleled migration. In other days there has been a loan of labour to the harvest fields and for constructing the great railroads overseas ; today we are loaning some of our best children. They will grow in health and stature, they will gain a measure of independence and confi- dence and they will act unconsciously as a new link among our scattered race. It remains now for everyone to help to make the scheme successful. There cannot exist a more humanitarian task among all those who speak the English tongue.
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