BRITISH CHILDREN ABROAD

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24913, 28 June 1946, Page 2

BRITISH CHILDREN ABROAD

ESCORT WORK DURING WAR ADDRESS TO TRAVEL CLUB "The Pied Pip er of 1940” was the subject of a talk given yesterday at the Travel Club by Mr G. H. Lawton, lecturer in geography at Canterbury University College. Mr Lawton described his experiences as an escort to one of the parties of British children who were sent to Canada during the V/ar. Mr Lawton, who went to London from Australia, was told when he offered his services as an escort; “We are very glad to have people from the Dominions to escort these children overseas because on the way they can teach them language.” Mr- Lawton spoke of the difficulties that were experienced before the could embark, and other difficulties which had to be overcome before the reluctant immigration officials would allow them to disembark m Canada. The local escorts took charge of the children immediately they set foot in Canada. “We were not even able to say good-bye to the children, whom we had got to know quite well during the three weeks at sea,” said Mr Lawton. The windows of the trains in which they were taken to their destinations in Canada were kept closed at all stations, and the children were not permitted even to wave to the Canadian children who were at every station to greet them. The value of transplanting, even for a brief period, people from England to the Dominions was emphasised by Mr Lawton. “We could do far more along these lines, in bringing new blood into the Dominions,” he said. “Many parentless children could be fostered in these Dominion homes. If we can understand each other’s problems, and how all peoples of the world can live together, only then will we establish a real peace.”