CHILDREN’S REPUBLIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1941, Page 2

CHILDREN’S REPUBLIC

AUSTRALIAN ADMINISTRATOR. A “Children’s Republic” has been set up in a large house on a hill near Melton Mowbray,' famous for its pies and hunting, in Leicestershire. It is to be a sanctuary for refugee children from warring European countries, and its administrator is Esme Odgers, an Australian. There will also be a director, matron, and staff of grown-ups, but the president will be a child. i The citizens in. this republic are EngI lish, French, Belgian, Polish, Dutch, ■ and Spanish. They have gone there because they have no parents, or because they do not know where their I parents are, or because their parents are unable to look after them. The English children among them have been orphaned by air raids. The I Spanish are a remnant of the children brought there during the civil war. They have remained because their parents were killed in the raids on Bilbao. The international atmosphere is further enhanced by Eric Muggeridge, the association’s secretary, who is an American. At their new home, the children will learn to live together without racial disagreements, to be good citizens, and to rule themselves. They choose their own house committee, which elects a child chairman, who will be president. The committee of children will laydown rules of conduct and, if they are broken, decide punishments. They will also give a ruling on the question of what games shall be played, what kind of performances will be given in the theatre, and so on. The new “republic” has an army hut as a recreation hall. It also has a kitchen garden so that its citizens can “grow for victory,” and a field or two may be added so that some real farming can be done. The fairy godmothers of this scheme are American citizens, who subscribe to the Foster Parents Plan for War Children. The first home, Sanctuary House, has been established for some time in North London, with twenty- ' five inmates. The new one, at Melton Mowbray, will be called Colony House, and fifty or sixty children will go there.