DR. BARNARDO'S HOMES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 89, 13 April 1912, Page 2

DR. BARNARDO'S HOMES.

“XO DESTITUTE CHILE REFUSED.” (T'o t]io editor of “Stratford Post. ’} Sir,—Last May tire Press all over the English-speaking world were good enough to publish a letter from me, written on behalf of the Council o; Dr. • Barnardo’s Homes, pointing out the difficulty in which wo then found ourselves owing to ti)e drop of £38,GOO in our income for the previous year, and to the continued decrease during the earlier months of 1911. We faced for the first time with the possible necessity for abandoning the. rule which Dr. Laniardo laid down, and which we, as his successors, had faithfully maintained since his death—the rule that no destitute child shall ever be refused admission—unless we risked finding ourselves unable to perform our obligation to the 9,400 children already in our care; or unless the public decided for us that the rule was worth keeping, and by their help should be kept. Thanks, Sir, to the kindness of the Press, and to the additional

help which came to ns during the latter half of the year, the rule lias been kept, and, so far as we know, no destitute child lias yet been refused admission. But we found ourselves .at Hie,, end of last year with only half of tho deficiency made up. This is the okcuse of myself and my Council for 'troubling you again. In asking for .more money we are met by a difficulty V'hich the managers of every large institution have now to face. More and more the public are beginning to ask themselves whether individual generosity should tax itself with voluntary burdens, in addition to those already imposed by law, for the benefit of the less fortunate or less capable members of the community. We have therefore to show not only that our work is worthy of support, but that it can better be carried on by private and individual effort than by tiie State. In the case of children we. have no doubts; we believe the help which is given freely, which comes direct from human sympathy, blesses both those that give and those that take; and our appeal for Dr Barnardo’s' Homes applies also to all those gl'Cfit, wisely managed institutions Which are our rivals and our very good comrades in the children’s service: There is no workhouse taint .about, our children. Before our boys, become men we doubt whether there is any heavier sense of dependence among them than there is among aver-age-public schoolboys towards the ' who lutke'done their duty by. them in the matter of mailitena-nce "And 'education'; 1 ‘tlfhf arc being given-, tlieil- chance, and in almost every car-, our children show that they deserve

it. Our children do not become “charity children.” In Canada, to have b.ceiP'at “Barnardo’s” is a bond of union among Barnardo boys, as to have been at Eton is among Old Et'Onianh; and tVd‘•'tir'd l 'sending out into 'the country uhd" Colonies as many. Bklhardo tv year as Eton proilviebs Old Etohiitilh in five. Our children ’ tire not ashamed of their bringing up—are proud of it, in fact, and do it credit. They grow up, as we want them to grow up, not pauperised, dr humiliated by the remembrance ol a somewhat grudging maintenance ui’ the expense of unwilling ratepayers, blit honest, independent men and women, with a grateful and often affectionate regard for the place that made them so. What might they have been? How many of these children would have had a chance of becoming anything but a curse to their country in the surroundings from which they were rescued? Yet almost every one will grow into a useful citizen, if we may judge by the past. I spoke, Sir. of our “excuse” for troubling you. Really it is not an excuse that we need, but a binding obligation that rests upon us to press the claim of our country’s children upon the voluntary help and sympathy of every one who loves the Little Ones, and who is as anxious as we are to sweep, child misery, child mis-use, and child destitution from the face of our land. And for this cause we ask for donations and subscriptions to enable us still to keep our rule intact, that in the last resort every destitute child may always'have a home to come to, widen can never be too full to take it, into which it can always claim to be admitted by nothing but the sovereign right of its own destitution.

| I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

■SOMERSET, President. Head Offices of Dr. Barnardo’s Homes lb to 26, Stepney Causeway, London E., March 4th, 1912.