Source A is a very positive attitude or impression to evacuation as it shows evacuees walking to the station in London in September 1939. The children don't look at all bothered, they seem to be smiling and waving to the person who is taking the photograph. Although this is a photograph so it will be real, it isn't that reliable in showing the attitudes or impression towards evacuation because the rest of Great Britain may have different views on the whole evacuation idea, probably a lot of children and the parent would be feeling quite distraught as it would be quite an emotional experience so it definitely isn't at all reliable at showing what evacuation was like and the publics attitude. It could be a source of propaganda; the government were probably trying to make out that evacuation was going well and that it would be a success.
Source C shows the opposite side of the coin and what a traumatic time evacuation was for both the children and parents. Maybe it would have been better if they had relieved children of this experience and just spent the money on the war effort. Source E shows how evacuation affected the host family just as badly as the family who had to give their children up. The tales of children urinating on walls or in corners as described in Source E were a very common experience.
Evacuation did pull the country together in a time of great hardship and it also made people feel as if they were doing something to help. Evacuation made the government popular with the people because they were protecting children on a massive scale. One success that came out of evacuation was that it highlighted the differences between the rich and poor and it eventually led to the welfare state and the National Health Service being formed. Without evacuation this would have never happened.
Of the 3m Britons who were evacuated 900,000 had returned to their homes by January 1939. This fact shows how evacuation was not really all that
Successful as one in three children had returned home by January. In fairness to the government though no bombs were dropped before January 1939 and so many mothers thought that war was not going to happen and so they brought their children home. After the Phoney War ended and London was bombed another two waves of evacuation occurred.
Source D is a source of propaganda so of course it's going to be a positive attitude. The government needed to persuade families to think about joining the roll of those who were willing to receive children form all over the country. Though the government seem to be in desperation, and the public might have thought, the evacuation plan is failing because no one seems to be volunteering to help out. This source shows that by 1940 people no longer wanted to take in evacuees and that evacuation was failing.
Source H is a piece of government propoganda. There are two children in the picture, they look fairly happy, and this will again definitely appeal to families. The picture of the two children has two contrasting backgrounds behind them, one is of the countryside, which looks quite pleasant, and the other looks like an industrial estate, with flying planes over it. The government needed the public to think the children would be much safer and happier in the countryside. In the article/text the government have purposely put many questions in it, this would probably make you agree with them, as it would make you think twice. The source isn't that reliable at telling us the views on evacuation because the government will have wanted evacuation to happen to look good to other countries so the countries thought they were handling it well, and the publics view would probably be different. The government sound very manipulative. They use very emotional language throughout the article. This shows that evacuation was a great success in some ways, as government were trying to make out that it was, however it does seem that the evacuation process was failing as the government needed to publish an article to get the publics support.
On a whole, most of the sources are very negative about evacuation, so I don't really think it was a great success for the public, as they were the ones who were experiencing it and they didn't really approve of it, however for the government it was a great success as they saved some of their population plus other countries thought it was successful too so this was good for the British government. From the governments point of view evacuation was great successs because it achieved the aims of evacuation which were to reduce the casualties of minors and to free up mothers so they could work in the factories. Although there were problems such as bed wetters and deppressed children on the whole evacuation was a success.
