Secretly Civil Defence planned and produced the Anderson report in 1938. This developed the evacuation process with arrangements made for billeting evacuees and for the country to be divided into different evacuation, reception and neutral areas. The problem with these arrangements was, as war had not been declared; they had to carry them out in secrecy. No one could be ready for when evacuation would finally happen.
The planners recognised that schools would be at a particularly high risk to bombings as they had a high concentration of glass. In Spain, a bomb had hit a school and 70 children where killed, the government didn’t want the same tragedy to affect the morale of the British people. The low morale would affect the work rate and strength of the public.
The government also did not know what kind of affect the war and bombing would have on children, although studies showed that children could withstand considerable pressure under the parentage of a happy adult. But the problem with this was that, the government wanted adults and especially women to work in factories now that the men had been recruited into the army. With more work and duties to carry out, the average parent would have less time for their child. Children would probably start to get more rebellious without the supervising of an adult. This amplified the saying; ‘out of sight out of mind,’ with children in the countryside parents would not worry about the safety of them.
As the parents showed a huge amount of concern for their children’s safety in many opinion poles they voted majority in favour for the idea of evacuation. Some parents, remembering the First World War, sent their children overseas or moved into the country with them.
The government knew that children relied on adults for their well-being and livelihood, especially babies and toddlers. If small children were kept in the towns and cities the overtime work production rate would not be able to increase to help the war effort. This was another motive for evacuation because with the children away in the countryside the parents wouldn’t need to look after them or feed them. This therefore increased the amount of time and adult could spend working and so improve the overall effort put into the war.
Another reason for evacuation was the adults would have a greater morale if they knew their children were safe. If all the children were away from danger in the countryside parents would not dwell on whether their children were coming to any harm and could get on with work. The government could also use this for propaganda by saying you where working to keep your child safe and the future generations of Britain living on.
Food was very short in the major towns due to the lack of ground to grow extra food on. The British government knew that it would be easier if the demand for food was more spread out, especially if the children were away in the countryside, as out there it was more abundant. When the children were away the supply of food would be given out more to hard working adults who needed it but would usually sacrifice it for a hungry child. Children could get the vital nourishment they needed from the healthy foods that were more readily available in the countryside. The government also knew that with a higher supply for food needed in the cities, children could help as farm hands or such and still be helping the war effort instead of making it worse.
After a few months of the war and no movement had been made that showed any signs of bombings or deaths, many parents wanted their children back with them. This started a huge drift back into the major cities and towns. This lasted for a few more months and then when the bombings started properly a huge second wave of evacuation started again mainly caused by the blitz and v2 bombings.
In the end the major reason for the government to evacuate children into the countryside was because they feared about the huge damage that might occur to the younger generations in the bombings. The government knew that for the many reasons I have stated, it was a much better idea than letting them stay in the highly dangerous cities. Parents also voted for these methods showing that the public was well behind the actions of the government and in the end it turned out as the right choice.
