DANGERS OF VOYAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 156, 3 July 1940, Page 7

DANGERS OF VOYAGE.

Arrangements For Migration

Of Children.

BRITISH APPLICATIONS

United Press Association.—C-opyr'.ght.

(Received 10.30 a.m.>

I.OXDOX, July 2.

Air. Geoffrey Shakespeare, UnderSecretary for the Dominions, in the House of Commons, announced that Mr. George Gibson, well known in trade union circles for his knowledge of migration, had been appointed to I advise the Children's Overseas Reeepjtion Society on labour questions connected with migration. Mr. Tom Henderson, equally well known in Scotland, will be liaison officer between the C.O.R.S. and .Scottish organisations. .Applications have been received from local authorities in England and Wales regarding over 40\000 children attending grant-aided schools, aiso about 12.000 applications direct from parents. The liaison officers will be appointed to the staff of the Dominion High Commissioners. The grouping of hundreds of children for evacuation to the Dominions has reached a stage whereby a number of parents will be notified to-morrow that their children have been provisionally accepted. Mr. Shakespeare was announcing the latest details in the House of Commons as German bombers again crossed the coast in a daylight raid. Risk of Voyage and Risk of Air Raids. He said that parents would send the children at their own risk. They must choose between the risk of the voyage and the risk of staying in Great Britain. '"Our object is to proceed as quickly as human ingenuity can devise," he said, '"but we cannot dispense with precautions for the safety and welfare of the children." Doctors appointed by the Dominion High Commissioners would give a personal medical examination to every would accompany every ship. The children would be regularly taught about conditions in the Dominion. On their arrival they would be accommodated in hostels, which would -serve as clearing houses.

"We are importing fighting men from the Dominions. We are exporting to the Dominions the best of our children," he said. For this double blessing the Mother Country would be for ever in the debt of the daughter Dominions."