CHILD EVACUEES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 216, 11 September 1940, Page 10

CHILD EVACUEES.

QUESTION OF ADOPTION. MANY OFFERS RECEIVED. j WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Included in a number of the several thousand offers received by the Government to provide homes for unspecified British children to be evacuated to New Zealand are inquiries as to whether some children, being probably orphans, could be adopted by foster parents in the Dominion. The Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry, stated to-night that, although there seemed to be much in favour of adoption in the case of orphans, it was not the wish of the British Government that any of the children coming to New Zealand under the scheme should remain in the Dominion permanently but rather that they should return to England on the termination of the war. The names of persons who had indicated a desire to adopt children given to their care had been specially listed. The Government at present could not give an assurance that any children would be available for adoption, added the Minister. If it was subsequently possible to conclude an arrangement for adoption, then, in the event of a child being suitable and the foster parents satisfactory in all respects, adoption might be allowed subject to any safeguards deemed necessary. The Minister praised the feeling displayed by New Zealand mothers wishing to adopt children who had been bereft of their parents through the war. (Press Assn.)