Evacuation Schemes—an Inquiry
There is now available ample data relating to the problem of evacuated school-children, and it ought before this to have been the subject of scientific investigation on a wide scale. But in the absence of any such general inquiry one must look, and with gratitude, to the report of the Cambridge Evacuation Survey, which has made a sample investigation of the experiences of Cambridge with 400 children from Tottenham. It recommends that schools should be maintained as units, that children from the same family should be sent to the same district, and that communi- cations with parents should be made as easy as possible. It suggests that hostels with special staff should be provided for children who are unhealthy or dirty, and homes for " emergency and observation " to which children could be sent when billets were temporarily not available, and homes of another type for children with nervous disabilities. The point on which the committee lays the greatest stress is the need for large numbers of paid and voluntary workers to take some of the burden of care and entertainment off the foster- parents and teachers. All these, though based on limited inquiry, are valuable points which ought to be studied. One would have liked to have heard more about the question of catering in billets, and the provision of canteens in which the children could be served with meals.
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