200 Babies Who Are “ Lost ”

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 211, 7 September 1936, Page 5

200 Babies Who Are “ Lost ”

ADOPTED, BUT BY WHOM? More- than 200 children taken from Britain to become the adopted babies of Dutch parents, are “lost,” says the London “Daily Herald.” Some years ago, a Dutch woman went to England to adopt a child, for the law of Holland docs not allow adoptions. Subsequently she accepted commissions from friends to travel to England and get babies for them. Dr. 11. Sark, lion, general secretary of the National Ecderation of Unmarried Mothers in the Netherlands, told the “Daily Herald” that he was taking up the matter v.'.tli tho Home Office.

“Though we know there are at least 300 adopted British babies in our country, we can account for only 60,” he said.

“Who has the others? Aro the children happy and in good hands? Are the people who have adopted them good-parents? We have no means of knowing these things?’' Concern for the well-being of these babies is heightened by the fact that 90 per cent of them are the children of unmarried mothers. There is no suggestion that a “racket in babies” is being carried on.

The authorities believe that most of the people adopting English children do so from the best of motives.

There is a feeling, however, that, as the law stands, there is grave danger of abuses.