Appendix 28
Letter from the Head of Public Policy,
NCH Action for Children, to Howard Stoate, MP
WELFARE OF FORMER CHILD MIGRANTS (152C)Following
our discussion yesterday, please find enclosed copies of two documents
from NCH Action for Children's archives, which I visited on Monday.
The first shows that as late as 1957, the UK Government was prepared
to enter into a formal contractual agreement with sending agencies
such as ourselves to help subsidise the living costs of children
who had migrated to Australia.The second is a demonstration, in
my view, of the cynicism of the Australian Government of the day
in so far as the migration of children was concerned. As I explained
when we met, our archives contain a lot of material documenting
very considerable pressure from Australian Government officials
on children's agencies and on the UK Government, to send more
child migrants during the immediate post war period. I have also
seen clear references in minutes of meetings to everyone's acknowledgement
of the "the colour bar", but unfortunately do not have
copies of these to hand to send you. Copies could be obtained
later, if they would be helpful.Notwithstanding that I saw in
our archives changes my view that there is a continuing responsibility
on the part of the sending agencies and the UK and Australian
Governments towards former child migrants, on the grounds that
this misguided endeavour was clearly a joint enterprise by us
all. So far as NCH Action For Children is concerned, we are committed
to working with our former migrants and with the other parties,
to make the kind of sustained and immediate response to their
needs which is obviously required. We recognise that this has
resource implications for us and are prepared to meet these.We
are looking forward to your report to help provide the impetus
for this to become a reality for all former migrants, regardless
of which agency sent them, and will seek to support it both publicly
and privately.Meanwhile, if we can help in any specific way please
don't hesitate to get in touch with me.
Head of Public Policy.
22 July 1998
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