hildren in London
There are still large numbers of children living in the London County Council area, whose presence demands decisions from the Minister of Health and the President of the Board of Education. The former has been asked by the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party to make evacuation compulsory. If the decision should be in the negative, then the President of the Board of Education had to consider the question of compelling the children that remain to go to school. There are still 92,000 children of school age living in the London County Council area and in East and West Ham, of whom only 25,000 are going to school. There are therefore 67,000 children in this region who, living under conditions bad enough in any case, are also suffering through receiving no education at all and are mostly running wild in the streets in the day-time and sleeping in shelters at night. If proper air-raid shelters are provided at the schools they are exposed to no more danger there than in their homes or the streets. The time has come when education should be made com- pulsory for this unhappy residue; the L.C.C. has now announced that after consultation with the Board it proposes to take steps to enforce attendance. But best of all is evacu- ation. Ought it to remain within the power of parents to con- demn their children to existence in the danger zone? If the Minister of Health says No, the educational problem is solved.
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