THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, September 23, 1940. WHAT OF THE CHILDREN?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24410, 23 September 1940, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, September 23, 1940. WHAT OF THE CHILDREN?

Man is an. adaptable animal. If Nazi bombing planes were to hurtle over this city to-night dealing death and destruction the first reactions would be anger and terror. If the dreadful visitations were continued citizens would take steps to protect themselves and to adjust their ordinary lives, as well as might be, to extraordinary circumstances. The high pitch of, terror would be subdued in the necessity for carrying on—though anger would remain. So in London, after more (than a fortnight of constant and vicious air attacks, man is striving, not unsuccessfully, to accustom himself to a way of life in which the most nerve-shattering experiences that could be inflicted upon civilised beings are become a part of the daily round. It has been emphasised by many of the radio commentators from London that hysteria is more frequently to be found in the letters and cablegrams sent to friends or relatives in England by people in the dominions, thousands of miles from the theatre of war, than among the English people themselves. Imagination can conjure up pictures so dark as to obscure the reality—that the men and women of England are accepting this menace from the skies as part of the price they must pay in preserving their country as the keystone of freedom and democracy. But what of the children? Though this war is being fought in their behalf, it is not their war. None but an inhuman beast —or a Hitjer—would ask them to endure one day of such incomprehensible horror as is being dealt by the Nazi bombers almost unceasingly. The fall of France, the pitiless ferocity of indiscriminate assault by a foe who has lost his confidence, have exposed England to an ordeal from the air more terrible than could be prepared against in a few short weeks. The consequence, as is now seen, is that shelters are in some places overcrowded or inadequate, and evacuation has provided only a partial safeguard against the full brutality of the Nazi form of war being loosed upon the children of England. Night after night, the Daily Mail declares in an outspoken article, children in the danger areas are being subjected to the terrors of constant bombing; are being killed and seeing their parents killed: are watching with fear-stricken eyes their little world crumbling. They must be . saved from the prolongation of these miseries. That is a necessity which all must recognise, and there must be a part for all in helping to succour ..these most helpless and innocent of Hitler's victims. It is to London, to Whitehall, that the brave, distracted people of England look for advice and ' assistance in guarding their children from terror and death. But the responsibility cannot all be shouldered by Governments. In all parts of the Empire, and in many places beyond, there are people ready to assist in saving England's children from the fury of the Luftwaffe. Humanity requires that their instinct of compassion shall not be wasted, but given a practical form without delay. If the Governments of the Empire will but resolutely provide the lead, letting no difficulties stand in their way, it should yet be possible to preserve millions of English children from protracted horrors that must leave upon their minds a mark for life.