LITTLE CHILDREN!

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 12

LITTLE CHILDREN!

t THE CALLOUS HUN. TRAGEDY MISSED IN ARANDORA STAR. (By JOSEPH ALSOP AND ROBERT KINTNER.) WASHEN'GTON, July 31. The convention miasma is fading, and the realities of life in this year of very dubious grace are beginning to loom again. One of these is the almost unbearable problem of the English children. Despite the desperate need for refuge of millions of these children, and the willingness—even eagerness^ —of literally hundreds of thousands of Americans to take the children into their home, nothing is vet done to bridge the gap. The gap consists of three thousand miles of ocean, mined and siibmarineinfer?ted. Four weeks ago, the British Ministry of Shipping was prepared to evacuate the children in large numbers, and the obstacle to evacuation was the incredible red tape which State Department bureaucrats had wound around the children's feet. The red tape has now been cut. But, meanwhile, besides the Arandora Star and the Carinthia, the iJeorgic, the Franeonia and the Lancastria have all been lost on the Atlantic passage. This is the real reason why Winston Churchill announced in the House of Commons that the scheme to evacuate the children had been temporarily abandoned. The Arandora Star Lesson.

The real story of the Arandora Star is unpleaeantly instructive. It was, originally, to have carried a cargo of child" refugees to Canada. The Canadian Government was informed that it would leave with 2000 children. A member of the Government, wJio should have known better, publicly announced this fact, giving some indication of the time and place of the ship's departure. The British Government, "becoming alarmed, substituted German prisoners for the child refugees. And the Arandora Star went down with a German torpedo in its vitals.

Vessels like the Georgic, Lancastria and Arandora Star are fair to middling liners. If they are not fast enough to ■eeeape- the submarines, the children can be sent to this country only in the great 28-knot super-liners, or under convoy. There'are not enough vessels of the Queen Mary class to evacuate sufficient numbers of children to prevent discrimination. There are no British warships available for convoy. For whereas the Britieh had 4.>5 destroyers at the end of the last war, they now have far lees than half that number and must use all they have to hold the Channel. Thus it U useless to hope that the British Government will change its mind and send the children to this countrv in British bottome. It would be a tragic mistake if the Government did so. Gap Can Be Bridged. A vast tonnage of American ehippinc m,_ of course, available to bring the children to the safe place* which await them in the United States. Under an exception to the Neutrality Act allowed some months ago by Congress, the Red Cross is permitted to send ships into marine combat zones for relief purposes so long as safe conducts are obtained from the German Government. Aa it happens, the Red Cross proposes to •vrry on an extensive relief programme this winter in the European nations for which Germany is now responsible. The United States Government ie considering contributing part of the American food surplus for this purpose. Many wise heads doubt the advisability of allowing natural American generosity thus to give indirect aid to Germany against the national interest. But if this aid is to be given, certainly safe conducts for Red Cross child reecue ships -should be asked as its price. A strong movement for this purpose is now afoot. The Red Cross also has ite bureaucracy; and it seems to be some what unwilling to move. The administration,, afflicted with the counsel* of , opportunists, ie not anxious to take a daring part. But tne problem is so dramatic, the plan is so reasonable that action is at least possible. If the German Government is publicly asked to choose between seeing Europe starve and bombing the children, or letting the children escape and seeing Europe fed, it seems inconceivable that even the gangster minds now in power in Germany can hesitate for long. Story of Spain,

The acutenees of the need of the English children can hardly be exaggerated. > The children of Spain, except at Guernica, knew no such intensive bombing as the English children will know. Yet in the camps of Spanish child refugees competent welfare workers found that their horrible experiences had eo imbued the children's minds that they could think, and talk, and picture nothing but the horrors of war. Many of them, it was feared, could never grow up into normal men and women. Nor can one exaggerate the generous eagerness of the American people to meet the need of the English children. Instances can be multiplied indefinitely Perhaps the most telling is the story of the Italian farm labourer and his wife, with four children of their own and no huge sum to keep them on Against the advice of their •mplover and despite the faet that their homeland is at war with England, this humble Italian couple insisted on applying to the Child Refugee Committee to be allowed to care for an English child Vnder the. circumstances, it seems doubtful that even such, isolationists as Burton K Wheeler and Bennett Champ Clerk will dare to urge that the children %er left to face their fate.—(JT.A.X.A.)