CHILD MIGRANTS’ DEATHS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25902, 7 September 1949, Page 3

CHILD MIGRANTS’ DEATHS

FEDERAL MINISTERS ORDER INQUIRY (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) SYDNEY, September 6. Another baby, aged nine months, died to-day in the Bathurst immigration centre. The cause of its death was extreme malnutrition. A total of 15 immigrant babies have now died. The Federal Minister of Health (Senator N. E. McKenna) has announced that he and the Minister of Immigration (Mr A. A. Calwell) have •/-'fkrod an investigation of, the case histories of all children admitted to .he Albury and Bonegilla Hospitals.. The Commonwealth authorities claim that all the 12 babies who have uied at the Albury District Hospital and 25 others who are suffering from malnutrition, were brought to Australia in three foreign-owned vessels, two of them Italian. The Director-General of Health (Dr. H. Metcalfe) to-day denied a charge lhat the hospital accommodation at the Bonegilla migrant camp was inadequate. Dr. J. Van Leant told the press to-day that an epidemic of infectious diseases which swept through the Bathurst migrant transit camp in May and June was inevitable, because of the crowded conditions, and later because of the coal strike, which held up the clearance of migrants.