THE EVACUATION OF CHILDREN
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—My attention has been called to a note by " Janus " appearing in " A Spectator's Notebook " in your issue of September 3oth, which opened with the following words- " As was to be expected, the plans for the evacuation of elementary school children from London are being seriously obstructed by the unwillingness of the parents to let their children be evacuated." The writer then goes on to contrast the attitude of the " wage-earners " in this matter with that of the parents of pupils in secondary and public schools.
I think that in fairness to the parents of London, whose helpfulness and deep gratitude to the London County Council for the energy and drive which they put into the preparation of the scheme was a thing quite unexampled in the experience of the teaching staffs, your readers should be put in possession of the true facts. -
These are that despite the fact that head teachers were deliberately asked not to represent in any rosy light the con- ditions likely to be met with in the billeting areas, at least 8o per cent. of parents were ready to entrust their children to the care of the teachers. It is true that in a preliminary series of about 5o meetings held by head teachers on their own responsi- bility and before they had full details of the Council's scheme, the secondary schools showed a higher percentage (usually in the region of 95 per cent.); no doubt owing to a quicker perception on the part of the parents of those in secondary schools of the conditions likely to arise in London in the
event of hostilities. But from the moment when head teachers were put in possession of the full details of the scheme and meetings were held in every school, all heads experienced a steady hardening of parental opinion in favour of the scheme, and thousands of mothers whose first reaction had been that they would prefer to " die with their children," returned to school next day, after talking the matter over with their husbands, to request that their children might also be included.
If " Janus " could see, as I have seen, examples of the letters and resolutions sent to head teachers by " wage-earning " parents, he would not, I think, any longer be inclined to contrast their grasp of realities with those of parents able to send their children to the public schools. Indeed, the devoted work of the County Hall staff in preparing the scheme, the selfless devotion of the teaching body in furthering it, and the gratitude of parents throughout the length and breadth of London will for me always remain one of the happiest memories of a very grave fortnight in London's history.—I am, Sir,
London, S.E. z. Committee of the London County Council.
[" Janus " writes : What I wrote was based on facts within my knowledge regarding particular areas—I know it did not apply to all areas—and it seems to be actually borne out by Mr. Robertson's letter. He says that 8o per cent. of the parents were ready to let their children go ; but the remaining 20 per cent. represents zoo,000 children—hardly a negligible number. With Mr. Robertson's tribute to the teachers I very warmly concur.]
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