“SQUEERS STILL ALIVE.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 September 1924, Page 9

“SQUEERS STILL ALIVE.”

STORY OF CHILD TORTURE;.

REAL LIFE IN BELGIUM

MODERN “DOTHEBOYS’ HALL.”

description of “Dotheboys* Hall,” in Yorkshire, where helpless children were tortured by the. ruffianly Wackford Squeers, 'has found a counterpart in real life in Relgium And, unhappily, English children were among the victims. The institution concerned was known ■ as the Ranst School, at Antwerp. It was conducted, it was alleged, by a man of loose character, and some months ago it was raided by. the Belgian police. A shocking condition of affairs was disclosed. though the school was large enough for only 20 children, over 100' were there, many of them less than six years of age. They included two little iMiglish children, iv boy and a- triFl named James and Eva Westby “ 4 large number of the children were round in a dreadful condition—cruelly treated and ill-nourished—arid the premises were filthily dirty. The children slept in a loft, where vegetables weie rotting, and the atmosphere was described as “unbearable.” Their food consisted of dry bread and unpeeled potatoes, and it was said that they Jt wa * also stated that the two. English children had been Pl^ q t 0 , do th ? most ignoble work.' . xvn ,'„Jn e * eharK ° d h y the “school” weie 600 francs a year, and it was chought that some of the parents had S r n +u 1 dre A U tbere simply to get rid ot them. An inquiry established the. I act that when one child died some months ago the body remained all night in a. bed where, two. other ehilsiren were sleeping. Ihe result- of the police raid aroused the deepest indignation in Belgium and terrible stories told of the suftermgs of the children led to considerable public interest being taken in the. trial ot the people responsible for the manThe director of the sSool •■>aul that Mr Westby had sent -no vvorcl to his children for two years. WWf-W S P u° Ved to be untrue, Mr. M.n+ b i y ’ i save ovule ll fc, proved that he had sent ,-£l every week and produced the, receipts. ' ’ a 1 Professor de Bast, who was promirient of oclated with the management of the school, has been sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Another professor. Dr. Secelle, who wm X ha* W m r co " neet »oH with the affair aS,- o" tl* ha, 'f d -, mut Shio-tci) ■> i i ■ SC lp 9 ’ il n,ail named

The Westby children were for some time m hospital, but they have si ce been brought hack to England