EVACUATION WORK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23487, 26 October 1939, Page 3

EVACUATION WORK

CHILDREN IN COUNTRY LIKING FOR RURAL LIFE GREAT CHANGES ANTICIPATED Many people in England who were associated with the evacuation work from towns to country of the immense number of children hold the view that these impressionable little people will never again want to return to crowded areas and the confined residential spaces that are inseparable from populous cities. The children aro being so well looked after —frequently in largo country homes and park estates —that they aro very happy. Schooling has been arranged for, and thinkers who take a long view express the opinion that this migration from town to country is going to put an agricultural England on the map again. Lady Astor, M.P., looks at the evacuation from a rather different angle, however. She anticipates the development of "children's cities" in the heart of the countryside, whore no grown-up people will be allowed unless they respect and love children. "The whole future of our children i 3 going to be changed by this great experiment," she stated. "We shall find that the child of two to five is better off without the mother if that mother is untrained or too busy to give it the time it needs." Lady Astor believes the mother is necessary to the child only during its first year. The child of two to five had to have discipline, companionship and proper care, for then or never could it be taught how to get on with others without fighting. One of the great tragedies in the world, she considered, was the number of mothers who had not tlio time, tlio wish or the experience necessary to deal with children up to five. Lady Astor suggests that _ a children's refuge should be sot up in every borough, preferably near a first-aid post, with voluntary workers who understand child psychology in attendance. Each refuge, she said, should be equipped with toys, food and possibly a cot or two. In these havens the child's worst fears would be soothed and the danger of a deep emotional shock avoided.