THE BELGIAN ORPHANS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 38, 1 October 1914, Page 7

THE BELGIAN ORPHANS.

WHO WILL TAKE ONE? Dr. Richard Arthur, ALL.A., writes as follows to the Sydney Daily Telegraph : I have had a most wonderful response to the proposal suggested to me by a lady in the bush, that some Australian women should adopt a child orphaned by the war. From all parts and States offers have poured in, and continue to come, from women who are anxious to help in the splendidly generous way of assuming the entire responsibility for a child.

The letters make interesting reading. They are from all classes and conditions—from people who arc evidently poor, from others who are well-to-do. Many are from women who are either childless or have only one 01 two children of their own, and wish another to act as a companion. Thus, mothers witli boys only want a little girl. Strangely enough,' the great majority demand Belgians girls between the ages of two and five years, and some offer to pay the cost of passage. One woman calls attention to the 13 babies that were rescued from the houses burning in a Belgian village, and states she would like one of them to take the place of her only child who she lost. A few go as fai as to say they will take a girl and a boy. One mother with a family of eight is prepared to accept the responsibility of yet another. “What can we say of this. 0 How small in comparison is the giving of money or old clothes when contrasted with this willing and even glad shouldering of what, under the most favorable circumstances, must be a very considerable burden. 1 have asked the committee that is dealing with the Belgian refugees if they will take up this matter, and cable the offer to England. I believe that several hundreds of these children can be placed, and 1 am certain that there must be a ver.v large number of either Belgian, British, or French little ones who have lost their parents, and who are therefore dependent on public charity. Those could easily he sent out in charge. <1 the widows who are coming here. Thenmust ho one condition, however, and that is that the children he medical',’! examined before leaving Europe, and certified as free from diseases of a’ j kind.

“I should be glad if those who navo written to me will take this as an .',u- I, mediate reply to their letters, and await a further communication. In the meantime, I should he glad to hear from any others, especially residents in the country, who are willing to adopt children, letters to he addressed to me at Parliament House, Sydney.”