The Children’s Charter

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 37, 30 March 1928, Page 15

The Children’s Charter

‘Talk by Mr E. C. Cutten S.M.

=) ROM IVA recently, Mr. B. meray! C. Cutten, S.M., delivered a lee 2 informative talk on ‘I'he Male) "Children’s Charter’? and aig "| the work being done on roe! behalf of the children of the world by the Child Welfare section of the League of Nations. The committee, he said, which deals With child welfare was set up in 1924, and it is called ‘The Advisory Committee for the Protection of Children and Young Persons." ‘The League had been doing a great deal of child welfare work before this committee was set up. The Save the Children Fund, which commenced its great work immediately after the war, the main endeayour being to save the children from some of its most terrible effects, was administered in conjunction with the League, and much of its work eoveres the whole ground of child welare., . (PHE first Child Welfare Congress called by the new committee met in 1925. Fifty-four nations, including New Zealand, were represented. The congress passed a series of resolutions which were subsequently adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations, and became ‘The Declaration of Geneva." In view of what is contained in these resolutions, it is of interest to note that 54 nations were represented et this first congress; it is further of interest to note that the resolutions were passed uneninously, and that they were adonted unanimously by the Teague Assenibly. ‘ "HIS immediate interest of nearly all the peoples of the world only appear to have heen created by the League, the League’s work was more in the nature of a match set to powder. The supreme importance of the child is a thought set deen in the hearts of all people, and it needed only the spark created by the comummittee’s work to set the interest of the workl aflame. The main objects of the Declaration of Geneva are set out in these five articles, and of these I wish to draw particular attention to 1 and 5:Asticle 1-The child must be given the means requisite for its normal development hoth materially and spiritually. Article 2.-The child that is hungry | must be fed; the child that is sick must be nursed; the child that is backward must be helped; the delinquent child must he reclaimed; and the orphan and the waif must be_ sheltered and succoured. Article 3.-The child must be put in a position to earn a_ livelihood, and must he protected against every form of exploitation. Article 4.-The child must be the first to teceive relief in times of distress. Article 5.--The child must he brought up in the consciousness that its tal-

ents must be devoted to the service of its fellow men. The first comment to make upon these articles is that they merely give expression to thoughts deep-set in the hearts of all-people. There is-no normal grown person who in ordinary circumstances would not give effect to these if the occasion arose. ‘That is why the first congress was almost fully representative of the nations of the world, and that is why the resolutions were both passed bv the congress, and adopted by the League Assembly unanimously. "THE Declaration of Geneva is rightly called "The Children’s Charter." There are one or two things in this charter to which I vaiue this cpportunity to draw attention. Article 1 contains the whole declaration. ‘The other four articles state the more important illustrations of its application. Articles 2, 3, and 4 deal for the most part with the child’s material development, article 5 with its spiritnal development. The first instinct of nature is to carry on. If we would carry on as individuals we must attend first to our material needs, and if we would carry on atight, to our spirituil needs. The same instinct presses us to see carried on the family and the nation. Both these are carried on by the child, and if we would see them carried on we must provide the child’s material development, and if we would see them carried on aright, we must provide for the child’s spiritual development The progress and happiness of the future depend upon the wav we bring up and train the child of to-dav. the: success of the League of Nations in the attainment of its ideal, the peace and happiness of the world denends upon our adherence to the Declaration of Geneva. When the children of each nation are brourht up in accordance with this charter, when every child is brought un in the conscions knowledge that the obiect of its life is the service of its fellow-men, then the peuce of the world will be assured. "THE League of Nations Union in each country does nor aprear to he doing the actual work of the League; it is, in fact, doing a very imnortant part of it. In extending the knowledge and interest in the Teague, and in strengthening the helief in it and faith in it, the union is creating the power upon which the League depends; that is, the strength of public opinion in the countries of its constituent members. In the future the nnion wili take a more definite part in the Leatve's actual work, and that part will be to interest itself in the education of the young, and to see to it that every child is brought uv in the conscious knowledge that the object of its life is the service of its fel-low-men.