§ 34. Major Tufton Beamishasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign children, and of what nationalities, have arrived in this country without their parents to be cared for since VE-Day; and how many more children, and of what nationalities, are expected before the end of 1946.
§ Mr. EdeAs the answer is rather long and contains a number of figures, I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Following is the reply:
§ 1. Children under the age of 16, unaccompanied by parents, admitted for long term periods or eventual emigration.
- (a) Distressed Relatives Scheme. About 160 such children are known to have arrived since this scheme was announced last November.
- (b) Children from Concentration Camps. The admission of 1.000 orphans from concentration camps under the auspices of the Central Office for Refugees has been approved. Of these, about 740 have already arrived or are expected within the next few days. These children are mostly of Austrian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Roumanian or doubtful nationality, or stateless.
§ 2. Children admitted in organised parties for recuperative visits, etc.
§ Schemes for the admission of approximately 11,300 children for visits of a few months' duration have so far been approved in principle. These children are of Austrian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French or Greek nationality. Of these about 9,000 have already arrived (1,500 before V.E. Day) and in most cases have completed their visits.
§ 3 Children coming for cultural or goodwill visits.
§ Various proposals for large numbers of children of different nationalities to pay short visits mainly to private homes for cultural or 1330 goodwill purposes have been put forward and agreed in principle. Many of these visits will be on a reciprocal basis.