BRITISH CHILDREN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 June 1940, Page 5

BRITISH CHILDREN

RECEPTION IN OVERSEAS EMPIRE DOMINIONS TO TAKE 20,000. STATEMENT BY MR SHAKESPEARE By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, June 23. The Under-Secretary for the Dominions, Mr G. H. Shakespeare, in a broadcast, gave details of the children’s overseas reception scheme. He explained that children from schools which received aid from grants would travel free and others at reduced rates. They would return to England as soon as possible after the war on similar terms. The Dominions would take 20,000 now and more later.

Already 20,000 inquiries had been received, and they continue at the rate of 7000 a day. Twenty thousand children were expected to leave within a month. An effort was being made to place the children in homes of similar religion and environment to their own.

Mr Shakespeare 'said that the scheme involved the sending overseas of British children between the ages of five and 16 years whose parents feel that they will thus be safer from war risks. He referred in terms of gratitude to the offers from the Dominions and the United States.

He emphasised that there was no question of mass migration. The plan was limited to the sending overseas of as many children as possible, having regard to the inevitable limitations on shipping to the number of offers for the reception of children, and, above all, to the need for an orderly and Avell-thought-out scheme which would ensure the safety and welfare of the children.

Mr Shakespeare said it was surely an inspiring thought that many lovers of freedom far removed from the war zone were ready to look to the safety of Britain’s children while she fought the battle of liberty.