Although the main reason for evacuation was advancing technology, there were other causes that were important also. There were social, political and economical reasons for evacuation. The main reason for evacuation was for the political power to be seen as looking after their people so that they would get re-elected next term. Although this was good for the people as they were being made safe, the idea behind it was essentially a bit self-centered. Although slightly selfish it was the Governments responsibility to look after its people, that is what they were there for.
The economic motives were much more serious. The British Government realized that the people at most risk in a war were people such as the children, and without the children it didn’t matter if they won the war as without them there was no future for Britain. In-fact they had already worked this out many years before WW2 when they set up the A.R.P, air raid precautions unit 1924 after all the Zeppelin attacks during WW1, back then all they had for bombers was large balloon ships that went slow and were very large which is why they were so disturbed at the rate of increasing aircraft technology in the years preceding WW2.
More important than this though, to the government at least, were the social causes for evacuation. If the children were gone this would free up many more key workers essential to the war effort. The government realized in WW1 that one of the vital reasons for Britain winning the war was the input the women gave in doing their ‘bit for the boys’ by working in the munitions factories and alike. With all the men gone off fighting there was no one left to make the weapons that are needed in a war, so this responsibility was taken by the women who wanted to do their bit for their country to help the war effort and make their family proud. With the mothers kids gone she would work a lot better for several reasons, they wouldn’t be worrying about their children they knew they were safe and away form bombings, and they didn’t have to be at home looking after their children, therefore they could not only do better work but put in more hours in increasing the amount and quality of ammunitions etc… produced.
With the children away this also freed up more essential workers such as Doctors, Nurses, Firemen and Policemen. Policemen didn’t have to be chasing after children who had been messing around on streets, stealing, chasing them and helping them when they didn’t know what to do when the air raid sirens went off or wasting time running after children who couldn’t look after themselves. Doctors and nurses would be free to look after people such as the firemen helping after the bombings, people hurt in bombings, and most importantly, the injured soldiers, the people actually fighting the war. If the children had stayed however, with all the bombings going on things would have been a lot worse. If the people working, helping to win the war, saw the bodies of dead children lying in the streets panic would ensue and the army would have to be brought back form fighting to help keep the calm, and you cannot win a war without an army.
Although all of these reasons for evacuation were perfectly reasonable, there is one more that I feel was a much more important reason for the early evacuation. Even in WW1 countries were developing all different kinds of technology at a disturbing rate like in the arms and naval race. The development of aircraft technology was one step further. In WW1 they only had big airships called zeppelins, and only about 20 years later they have aircraft so good it can travel a much longer distance in a shorter time and carry more bombs, the rate of advancement frightened the government to no end, especially after the events in Guernica. The Germans had just finished completion on a new type of aircraft and was later quoted to have said that Guernica was just a practice. The devastation there was total, someone was quoted as saying “by 7p.m there was no Guernica” This is a prime example of why the new aircraft technology frightened the Government so.
