§ Mr. J. Morganasked the Minister of Health whether it is proposed to billet civilian refugees in the village of East Stonham, Suffolk, in the event of war; and, if so, what will be the maximum number of additional persons billeted there?
§ Miss HorsbrughIt has been left to the local authority to distribute between the various villages in any local government area the number of evacuated persons allocated by my Department to the areas as a whole. In making this distribution the local authority will no doubt take into account the amount of available accommodation in each village revealed by the survey carried out early this year.
§ Mr. Parkerasked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that it is intended to evacuate children from Faircross Special School, Barking, to suburbs of Lowestoft which were bombarded in the last War; and whether he will reconsider this decision and find safer and more suitable places to send them?
§ Miss HorsbrughI am aware of the proposal referred to by the hon. Member. For the reason given in the reply to the hon. Member for Everton (Mr. Kirby) on 18th May, my right hon. Friend cannot rule out this borough as unsuitable for the reception of evacuated persons. We cannot escape from the fact that in this small and industrialised country absolute safety for the large numbers to be transferred is unattainable; the main consideration on which decisions must be1036W based is whether the receiving areas do not offer a much better chance of safety than the districts in which the children now live.