EVACUATION ERRORS
IT is a fortunate fact that the first effect of the war to be acutely felt by the mass of the people is not that arising from enemy attack, but from the dislocation of ordinary life. If both had arrived simultaneously the disturbance arising from the second cause would have been much more serious than it has been. As it is, there has been time to look round, and there will be no excuse if we do not gradually eliminate muddle and restore a social order suited to war conditions. Some disorganisation even under the favourable conditions which have existed was inevitable. A country whose social and economic life is so intricately balanced can- not have the balance suddenly altered without over- weighting here, under-weighting there, and a great deal of maladjustment. If we grant the fact—which Mr. Ensor, recently writing in The Spectator, was inclined to question—that a large part of the population in vulnerable cities had to be removed, then the disloca- tion was sure to present formidable problems which would scarcely be completely solved at once, and can only be solved at all by resourcefulness and quick resolution. Whether the evacuation policy was right or wrong, it is a decision on which we cannot easily go back. Somehow the plan has to be made workable.
The official evacuation of school-children and mothers is not the only factor in the dislocation of social life, and has to be considered with the other movements which together constitute a great upheaval. Many persons who had no special reasons for remaining in the cities have removed themselves to the reception areas.
Thither also have been transferred businesses, large and small, and with them have gone their employees. Others have been drawn from the vulnerable areas to take up duties in the provinces in offices newly erected for war- time administration, and have been housed in hotels, clubs, and other buildings summarily commandeered.
This general post has resulted in the partial emptying of London and other cities, with serious loss of trade and employment in the businesses which remain there, and overcrowding and business congestion in the recep- non areas.
The problem of official evacuation demands first attention, both because it is the largest element in the tr insfer of population, and because it is obviously capable of being controlled. The situation cannot be allowed to remain as it is. No doubt there has been exaggeration of the hardships involved and the worst misfits have naturally drawn most attention. We publish letters this week, one of which presents the more cheerful side of the picture, whilst another shows that some of the hardships could be eliminated if the " victims " would study the rules. On the other hand there will be little sympathy for an official attitude which stigmatises just complaints as the " whines " of persons who should be content to accept the hardships of war. It is our business to reduce those hardships to a minimum and to reform the system so far as it is defective. The complacent attitude that all is for the best will not be tolerated.
For the treatment of the evacuees there are needed a short-term policy and a long-term policy. For a little time, till better arrangements are made, the reception areas must put up with a makeshift arrangement under which householders must house, feed and work for the visitors entrusted to their care. But even at this stage some inequalities of sacrifice could be smoothed away. There is no reason why municipalities in one area should relieve municipalities in other areas of the cost of additional social services performed for the trans- ferred children. Some of these expenses should be recoverable. Again there was no reason why poor people in the reception areas should supplement the fee of 8s. 6d. per child out of their own pockets when the child's parents, often better off than themselves, were relieved of the whole cost of maintaining them. This complete immunity will not continue. The Govern- ment has rightly decided that the parents or husbands of evacuees must pay all or part of the cost of their maintenance, and this indicates that a means test, under that or another name, will be unavoidable.
It has been somewhat ineptly pointed out that large numbers of the British Army were billeted upon French householders in the last war, and that the system worked smoothly and without complaint. There is no real comparison between the two cases. The persons billeted were troops who looked after themselves, not children needing to be looked after. Secondly, they were provided with their own Army rations, and there was no necessity for their French hosts either to pro- vide food for them or to cook for them. This considera- tion indicates a second reform which could be applied almost at once, under the short-term policy. For meals provided in the homes should be substituted meals in canteens. Part of the 8s. 6d. per child should be regarded as the equivalent of a ration. If meals were provided in canteens for 5o or zoo children each in recreation halls, Women's Institutes, local chapels and other available buildings, the money would go further for the provision of better food ; all would fare alike ; and housewives would be relieved of unnecessary anxiety. In the absence of a lead from the Govern- ment, there is nothing whatever to prevent a local com- mittee from starting the canteen system in its own locality, to the great advantage of both children and householders.
But a more thoroughgoing, long-term policy must be prepared to deal with this dislocation. The Govern- ment has announced that it is preparing for a three years' war, and it is impossible to imagine that for long the nation would be willing to leave- hundreds of thou- sands of children to be brought up in a higgledy- piggledy way in the houses of strangers, without either substantial schooling or any adequate provision for their leisure. The harm that would be done to the next generation if such a situation were allowed to continue will not bear thinking about. It surely follows that in the case of those numerous children who cannot safely be restored to their own parents and homes something corresponding to the life of a boarding-school, under the organisation of their own teachers and matrons, must be provided. That cannot be done very quickly, nor can the whole rearrangement be carried out at one stroke ; for it will involve the taking over and staffing of suitable existing buildings and the erection of well- constructed camps in carefully chosen places. This is a matter to which the Government and the local authorities ought to be giving their attention without delay.
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