HALT CALLED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1940, Page 6

HALT CALLED

IN EVACUATION OF BRITISH CHILDREN TO HOMES OVERSEAS l GOVERNMENT’S DECISION. WINTER WEATHER A FACTOR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.17 a.m.) RUGBY, October 2. Announcing its decision that no more children can be sent overseas under the Children’s Overseas Reception Scheme until further notice, the British Government states: “The r*bcent sinking of vessels carrying children overseas has illustrated the dangers to which passenger vessels are exposed even when in convoy under the weather conditions now prevailing in the Atlantic, and the Government has come reluctantly to the conclusion that during the winter season of gales and heavy seas, it cannot take the responsibility of sending children overseas under the Government scheme. “The Government recognises the keen disappointment that will be felt by parents who had hoped to be. able to send their children overseas under the scheme and expresses its warm thanks to the very many people in the Dominions and the United States who have so generously offered hospitality to children from the vulnerable areas of Britain. “The Government is sure, However, that our friends and kinsfolk overseas will be the first to appreciate that the Government’s decision is taken solely out of consideration for the best interests of the children themselves. Although operations under the scheme are suspended for the time being, it is not abandoned. The question whether the board will be able to resume operation next year must turn on the conditions then obtaining. Some 2,650 children have already gone overseas under the scheme. The parents of these children may be assured that there will be no suspension of the arrangements made for their welfare in their new homes.”