INVESTIGATION PENDING

Chronicle (Levin), 5 September 1949, Page 5

INVESTIGATION PENDING

(N.Z.P.A,

— Reuter.

Death OI Eoiaciated Migrant Babies In Australia

Copyright) '

Received Monday, 10.55 a.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 5. The Sydney Morning Hgrald coi> respondept visiting ' BOnegilia migrant camp in Victoria says that he- saw 25 babies some of whom were wast.ed almost to skin and bqne. They were even mpre emaciated tliaii the Chinese children he .saw in Singapore slums when he was a prisoner-of-wai-during the J>panese occupation. Thp" babies are the children of dispiaced Europeans who have come to Australia un'der the InI ternational Refuges Organisa.iDn's j scheme. ! A thorough investigation is being ' made fol owing the deaths of 12 chiidren in the Albury Hospital in the past 12 weeks. 1 The medical superintendent at the camp says that the children's condition is the resu't of ma 'nutrition and vitamin deficiency incurred before they reached Australia. The migrants- afe unanimous in I prai'sing the care and food they ihave received in the Bonegilla camp, but many complain of conditions on the migrant ships. A spokesman for the Immigration Department said that tho refugee organisation was resp'onsible i for the care of migrants from their admission to a dispiaced persons' camp in Europe until their arrival in Australia. A representative of the organisation in Australia declined to comment.