49. Mrs. Rathboneasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of the desire of parents to maintain their children who have been evacuated to the United States of America, he will consider relaxing the present restrictions to permit small but regular sums of money to be sent to the American foster-parents; or 1078 whether he will consent to the formation in this country of a contributory fund, invested for the time being in war savings, but understood to be destined, after the war, for the American foster-parents, or whatever American charities may be agreed upon?
§ Sir K. WoodI fully appreciate the desire of parents to maintain their children who have been evacuated to the United States of America, but I would remind my hon. Friend that, in deciding to send these children to the United States, parents did so with a knowledge that permission would not be given to remit funds for their maintenance, and in practically all cases a declaration was signed before the children left this country to the effect that no application to make such remittances would be made. I fear that I cannot agree to waive this stipulation, for it is essential to our war effort that our exchange resources should be conserved to meet our very large overseas commitments in gold or dollars. As regards the second part of the Question, our need for dollars after the war will certainly be very great, and I fear that I could not agree to an arrangement on the lines proposed which would involve a burden on the exchanges after the war.