NEGLECTED CHILDREN Sm,—I have had so many interested and sympathetic
replies sent me in answer to my letter of July 23rd that I should be very grateful if you could find room for me to answer the letter of July 3oth from Mr. Purton, Director of the N.S.P.C.C. He is naturally very jealous of his society's reputation, and in my brief note I must have given the impression that I was accusing the society of laxity. I meant to do the very reverse. Indeed, the cases I described were seen by me on behalf of the N.S.P.C.C.! No, the point is—and on this I am absolutely firm—there is a very grave shortage of accommodation for the children of parents accused of neglect. There are appalling cases where the children do go back to their filthy homes, with disastrous results. I have seen some. Furthermore, the magistrates, in this area at any rate, are influenced by the shortage of room in Children's Homes so much that they frequently only bind over one or other parent so that there will be some sort of roof for the young whilst the remaining parent is in prison.
Can Mr. Purton tell me of a single Home, such as Dr. Bamardo's, where there is not a waiting list at present? Lastly, he says that the N.S.P.C.C. policy is to rebuild a home for children under an inspector's supervision. Does he really think it feasible in the loathsome and horrible cases I have mentioned? Does he really think that such parents, after many warnings and many threatenings and after a term of imprisonment will so improve that they will forthwith be capable of creating a decent and morally sound home? Parents who reach the stage of going to prison for neglect are, in the majority of cases, either mentally or morally beyond hope of redemption. There is, I stoutly maintain, a fearful and largely ignored waste of potential citizens. It is not the job of the N.S.P.C.C.
to help here. They do their work admirably. They are not to be expected to run children's homes. The need is for large-scale Government interest.
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