These, The Children of War

Chronicle (Levin), 10 May 1948, Page 3

These, The Children of War

r t * > ■ .; V J (Contributed)--" -* " - ■ When dinner is announeed, do your children race madly into the dinirig room? Do they knock the furniture about and only half sit on.their chairs— after years of haVihg been told ' better? Do they spread their bread too thickly with biitter? After .all, we only get a sinall ration. .. Do they dip the gyavy carelessly and ' spill it' over the clean tablecloth? Do they shout at the table and get into arguments among themselves and fprget to say "Please" and "Thank You?" Do they neglect their green vegetables and gorge themselves with dessert and leave the table befofe anyone else and fail utterly to excuse themselves into the bargain? This is normal child's behaviour all over New Zealand, but it is not in Europe today. Next tiine your children turn your dining-room into a bedlam, let this letter come up' before your mind's eye.. It 'was written just after the war in Europe ended and came from a worker with UNRRA in France. Today the cbnditions must be even worse.

In reporting on the children at the Rivesaltes camp, this worker writes: "The barrack is arranged with a kitchen at one end, space for storing the food at the othei end, and in the 'middle a space with benches- where .the children sit to eat the meal provided for them. They enter by one door, present their card to be checked, are given the food and sit down and eat it before leaving by the other door. "They line up outside the barracks in long lines, each child with a tin can or a pail or some other homely^ receptacle for the food, and a spoon in his pocket. "The thing that struck me most forcibly as I looked ' at them individually was not the fact that they were so wretchedly clad; not that their feet wpre protectd from the stony ground by shoes riiade out -of. blankets "or straw; not even the stooped shoulders, the thin legs, the sores that do not heal and the blueness aro.und the eyes. I v/as prepared for the sight pf' all these. things, but what I was. not prepared fo'r was the expreSsion- on the faces of all these children; the mtentness, the. deadly serioiisness m which they approached Ttheir turn to ,be served fropi the steammg kettle fiiled with a thick mixture of.rice and milk. With absolute concentration. they watched while the ladle of rice was put into the eontainer which they held forward to receive it. Then they quickly sat down on the benches There was no talking, no laughing, not even smiing faces. No noise from the children excepf the scraping of spoons in the pails. It was an entir-ely absorbing and serious business, so important that one couldn't laugh or talk while doing it. It was the brooding, anxious faces of these little chil-

dren Scraping up the last blts ofthe small ration which we' could give them that really moved me most of all." * This is an actual extract from a letter received in Shannon late in 1945. These were the conditions. What must they be like now? The rowdy gamins that you have in • your house will have their natural exuberance calmed by time. As they grow older they will grow more circumspect. „ You need not worry— they will turn into decent and respeetable eitizens. But what will happen to these children of Europe? And of every other country where war has struck? What kind of eitizens will they grow into? They will be a problem when your children are grown and your children may have to deal with 'the problem they make. Unless we can do someJhing to help these unfortunate cnildren now, they may grow up into a race fiiled with hate. They may grow up to hate the world which plunged them into the suffermg and agony which only children can suffer in a land overrun bv war.

The fate of these children lies in our hands • we can, by treating them kmdly and relieving their SLifrering, educate them into understanding that we. do not hold them responsible for tlie actions of their pohticai leadersr— and with our support they will grow up into decent respeetable eitizens in the landl of their birth. Although the United Nations u? f dren" rcampaign has only just commenced in Shannon, the town clerk, Mr. J. T. Bovis, has received substantial donations and these will be acknowledged from time to timi through the columns of this paper. [H£^efi?cal committee ask that you aess that ™th the serious~ tnat it deserves and that vou F™ rtyo® fullest support wK collectors call on you durinS jhe period of the campaign. — ' —