YEAR IN COUNTRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 May 1934, Page 2

YEAR IN COUNTRY

NAZI PLANS FOR CHILDREN. The “Wanderjahre” (years of roving in search fo work) which the Gcitnan journeyman used to spend alter his apprenticeship, in order to gain some experience of the world, is now —in a rather different iorm—to be reintroduced’ for the schoolchildren of. Prussia.

They will not roam the world as did former young apprentices, but. they will be transferred for a year to a home in the countryThe provisions are introduced by a law published recently. Its purpose, it is explained, is “to take suitable young people of healthy parentage uway from the dangers oi their town surroundings.” The first children to fall under the scope of the new law will be those living in large towns, especially where their family circumstances are “politically and morally dangerous.” All boys and girls leaving- school will be subjected to a medical examination. Of those who pass it, preference will be given to the children of unemployed workmen, and to those for whom there is no prospect of finding a- position as learners in a trade or industry.

The school year in Germany ends at Easter, and an immediate start will be made with 25,000 boys and girls. Not only the elementary but also the secondary schools will be drawn into the scheme. Also, it is characteristic of the present German desire to favour the fit at the expense of the unfit that the medical examination will exclude the very children who would seem to need most a transfer from unhealthy town life into country air.

The scheme, indeed, will form a definite and extremely important part of the general Nazi programme of racial betterment and, at the same time, reduce the number of young people who leave school only to pass into the ranks of the unemployed.