So Shakespeare established the Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB) with himself as the Chairman. The staff was hastily recruited from various government departments and the Berkeley Street offices of Thomas Cook & Sons Travel Agents were requisitioned for premises and CORB was on the go to get things up and running.
By mid-June the House of Commons accepted the CORB proposals to send children between the ages of five and sixteen overseas. Advanced notice about the scheme was delivered to local authorities on that same evening and outlines of the scheme were printed in next morning’s papers. This created an unprecedented frenzy among parents and relations and seven thousand applications were received each day by mail or in person, not to mention the queue which materialised almost instantly outside the Berkeley Street office. Less then a week later Shakespeare found himself having to calm the frenzy he had created and was told to make a broadcast designed to dampen down this frenzy. As mentioned before the broadcast was prepared so that it emphasises the risks involved in carrying out the operation of evacuating children abroad and the difficulties in transporting hundreds and thousands of children overseas. The final draft of this broadcast talk by Geoffrey Shakespeare, Chairman of Children’s Overseas Reception Board was scheduled for Sunday, 23rd June, 1940.
In the speech Shakespeare announced that the Dominion Governments had stated that they were ready to accept at once 20 000 children and urged parents that this limited number must be appreciated. Though this statement was supposed to dampen down some of the frenzy, it had the opposite effect. Shakespeare must have anticipated this as he added that the 20 000 may only be an initial calculation. Still parents panicked, afraid that there would not be space for their child or children if they did not hurry to apply. Competition became even more ferocious. Consequently, in the two weeks from the announcement of the scheme CORB received over 210 000 applications for overseas evacuation, not including cast volumes of letters, and by the 4th July, 1940, it had to be announced to the public that no further requests could be handled. However exit permits for children being sent privately were still granted so long as parents understood and accepted the risks involved.
Shakespeare also emphasized the limited shipping capacity, the danger and stupidity of easy talk about sending enormous number of children overseas in a short amount of time. Even in the beginning the CORB found it difficult to secure enough accommodation on British passenger-carrying ships and not enough naval ships to provide as convoy escorts. On the 10th July the War Cabinet decided that no further applications to CORB would be considered. However this decision was never thoroughly carried out. While Shakespeare repeated to the House of Commons the risks involved and warnings about the limited number of children that could be accepted on the scheme he failed to urge parents to stop applying or inform them that there was a possibility that passenger ships might sail without naval protection.
The broadcast stressed of the limitation of offers from the Dominions and that arrangements to send their children to the homes of friends or relatives would be possible under the scheme. In reality, many of the successful applicants were from affluent families as some were given priority because of their links to ‘prominent public men’. Despite what was pledged, the scheme was not an equal opportunities one. Criteria that were designed to be fair were constructed but not necessarily observed. Children from poor backgrounds and designated ‘danger areas’ were the priority group. In fact many of the successful applicants were from well off families and perfectly safe areas. It also excluded war orphans and children of German or Allied refugees. In addition Jews, Catholics, non-white or disabled children were rarely successful as some Dominions refused to take them.
Of the eligible, only half the number of applications was received. This statistic could be interpreted either that the people of Britain were terrified of the war so wanted their children out of the way or that they wanted to carry on the fight with their children at home. Either way, it is likely that this number would be considerably higher had the scheme were allowed to continue for a longer period of time.
The broadcast talk urged parents to carefully consider their decision of whether or not to send their children abroad. Risks involved became painfully apparent a couple of months later when the evacuation ship SS City of Benares was torpedoed by a U-boat torpedoed in the mid-Atlantic. 256 lives that were onboard were lost, including 83 out of a party of 90 child evacuees. This brought an abrupt end to the official scheme.
The talk also mentioned the possibility of the United States accepting British children. Although the citizens of the US had expressed their sympathy for the British and some even extended it to offering a temporary home, US authorities were uncooperative that it made it close to impossible. Their rigid immigration policies made it very difficult to admit unaccompanied British children in the country and no US ships were willing to transport British children on their ships as their law stated that no foreign subjects were to set foot aboard.
The intention of the broadcast talk had been urge the parents that though their pain and fears are understood, careful thought and consideration must be given to their final decisions whatever they may be. It was also supposed to reassure the public and perhaps even to inject a dose of patriotism into the people of Britain: “our children will come back to us when we have secured final victory as inevitably we shall”.
A copy of the original draft of the broadcast talk was obtained from the National Archives and another copy was made word for word for the purpose of the appendix so it is entirely reliable.
This document is limited to the study of the government policy in overseas evacuation and the steps it took to cope with the demand. This draft also hinted at the blunders that were made in part by Geoffrey Shakespeare, and the difficulties that were involved in the vast and complicated operation. It does not give any evidence to the personal experiences of the evacuees or their respective parents.
Appendix
BROADCAST TALK BY MR. GEOFFREY SHAKESPEARE, M.P., CHAIRMAN OF THE CHILDREN’S OVERSEAS RECEPTION BOARD, TO BE GIVEN ON SUNDAY, 23RD JUNE, 1940, AT 1.P.M. (approx)
As Chairman of the newly appointed Children’s Overseas Reception Board I am glad to have the opportunity of speaking to you about the scheme for ending British children overseas. The proposals embrace in the first instance children attending school in any part of Great Britain who have reached the age of 5 and are not yet 16. H.M. Government here have received the most generous offers through H.M. Governments in the Dominions from the people who are anxious to receive, maintain and care for, at their own expense, our children for the duration of the war. It is to take full advantage of these offers that our scheme has been framed. Lord Snell has consented to preside over an Advisory Council composed of persons of great experience in matters of immigration, education and child welfare, spiritual and physical and I shall be greatly helped by their advice.
We have moved into our new premises on Thursday last, and are doing all that is humanly possible to meet the remarkable response from parents which followed the publication of the scheme on the same day.
You will want to know first how many children can go and when. I must emphasise that the Dominion Governments have stated that they are ready to welcome at once 20,000 children and it must be appreciated that the scheme must be limited to the number of children that the Dominion Governments are able to receive. I am assured, however, that the figure of 20,000 may be regarded as a beginning. The second limiting factor is shipping capacity. You will realise, therefore, that when people talk glibly about sending hundreds and thousands of children overseas in the space of a few weeks they do so without authority and without knowledge of the fast. Such talk is both dangerous and stupid.
We hope that the first selected parties will be proceeding overseas within about three weeks. If it can be done earlier, it will be done. Thereafter there will be steady outgoings. Obviously, it must take a little time to complete the necessary arrangements both here, during the voyage, and overseas for the safety and welfare of our children. This is not a mass migration, but a plan to send overseas as many children as we can, subject to the limitations of shipping and the offers made by each Dominion. It will be orderly, well planned and executed as quickly as human ingenuity can device.
We shall, of course, provide suitable helpers, for the voyage, - doctors, nurses and those persons, men or women, belonging to the many voluntary societies who have an intimate knowledge, from long experience, of conducting children overseas.
It is surely inspiring to know that lovers of freedom far removed from the war zone are so concerned about the safety of our children. Many parents will want to send their children to homes overseas of friends or relative and this will be made possible under our Scheme.
You will also wish to know what advice the Government can give to parents. Should they send their children overseas, or should they, as they have done in so many hundreds of thousands of cases, send them to the safer parts of our own country under the existing evacuation scheme. This is advice I cannot give. Only parents can decide. It is my duty to draw attention to the facts that may be helpful to parents in reaching a decision. Notwithstanding the difficulties to be overcome and the risks of the voyage the Government have thought it right to provide the facilities I have mentioned. You have to weigh the danger to which your child is exposed in this country, whether by invasion, or by air raids against the risks to which every ship that leaves these shores are subjected in war-time from enemy action, whether by air, by submarine, or by mines. The risks of the voyage are obvious and the choice is one for which you alone are responsible. They are risks which have to be measured against the dangers to which the children may be exposed by remaining in this country. What the Government can do is to provide as soon as possible the machinery by which, if you desire to send your children overseas, they can go properly supervised, with all arrangements made for their welfare, their maintenance and their aftercare at the end of their journey.
Finally, parents will ask: How can we get our child included in this scheme? Where are we to apply? My answer is: if you are the parent of a child attending a grant-aided school in England or Wales you will apply to the local education authority where you, the parents, now live, or, alternatively, where the child, if evacuated, now is. Grant-aided schools generally speaking mean elementary, secondary and technical schools. If you are in any doubt however go and ask the education authorities.
If you are the parent of a child attending any other kind of school in England or Wales, you should apply in writing direct to the Secretary of the Children’s Overseas Reception Board, Cook’s Building, 45, Berkeley Street, W.1.
As regards to Scotland, if you are the parent of a child attending an Education Authority School, you should apply to the Education Authority. The parents of children who are attending schools other than Education Authority schools should apply in writing to the Secretary, Scottish Branch of the Children’s Overseas Reception Scheme, 29, St. Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh, 2.
Parents will want to know what they will have to pay to participate in this scheme? Parents of children at grant-aided schools will be expected to contribute the same amount as they are now paying, or would pay under the United Kingdom evacuation scheme. Parents of children at other schools will be asked to pay at a higher scale, but one which can be adjusted to their circumstance.
There will be no charge for the sea voyage of children from grant-aided schools, and for other children the cost will be much lower than normal rates.
When the war is over the children will be returned to this country as soon as possible with similar concessions.
I understand that there is a most generous desire on the part of citizens of the United States of America to give a similar welcome to out children and that the steps are advanced for the formation of a suitable organisation for this purpose. Needless to say, we shall welcome any suitable scheme that is put forward.
If you decide to take advantage of the benefits of this scheme, I know there will be much burning of the heart at the thought of parting, but parents will not allow themselves to be influenced by selfish considerations where they believe the safety of their children is concerned. You will ask me for how long will the parting be? The answer is - our children will come back to us when we have secured final victory as inevitably we shall.
Mann, Jessica (2005). Out of Harm's Way: The Wartime Evacuation of Children from Britain. Headline Book Publishing, London. p57.
http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/naylander/evac/evac5.html, last accessed 23:43, Wednesday 13/04/2005.
Daily Mirror, Monday 23rd September 1940, in http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/naylander/evac/evac6.html
