Evening star., 1937-10-10

been dislodged from their homes by
the war in Spain. The Committee for
Refugees in the ministry of labor has
listed 100000 of them of whom it
knows the names and addresses. 1t
has 100000 more names in the same
gigantic card catalogue who are
marked as missing" These indicate
inquiries from relatives for somebody
yet to be found.
Taking into consideration the dila-
toriness Of our local officials, and the
fact that the Bilbao names have not
come in yet, We assume there must
be million and a half Of these refu-
gees" said the keeper of the listing
office "One million is very conserva-
tive From third to one-half would
be children" This. 1t seems. would
bring the total to nearly half mil
lion children dislodged from their
homes by war.
100000 Fled Through Madrid.
Madrid, Malaga and Bilbao are the
three great centers from which these
lcluSCES IOlIlS All Va tiiCoC SlNACS
were first flooded by hundreds Of
thousands of refugees from lesser
towns and villages who fed before the
invading troops. All of these cities
were later forced by the war to dis
gorge their own populations. Some
6O0, 900 persons thus fled through Mad
rid, and 100000 each through Malaga
and Bilbao.
The Spanish government formed q
Committee on Evacuation and Refu-
gees to deal with them. 1t functioned
first under the ministry of health, now
under that of labor It's chief task
is to list the refugees. supply transport
and correlate and aid the work of the
provincial and municipal committees,
on whom falls the chief burden of
supporting the refugees.
An emergency decree required every
Spanish family in the untouched parts
of Spain to accept and support at least
one refugee 1t is a decree not COM
pletely observed, yet it is amazing that
it should be observed at ALL The hos
pitable Spanish people at first took
the refugees into their homes. When
this form of relief gave out, the
municipalities requisitioned the empty
houses Of wealthy people who had fled
All the well-to-do sections of Madrid
for instance, are filled with refugees
from the ruined tenements. The Local
municipalities are expected to put the
refugees on local relief for food. The
central government gives meager as
sistance to the hardest pressed locali-
ties. BY all these means the refugees
more or less keep body and soul
together.
Little Milk, No Sugar.
It is a bad life for children. The
food supply is inadequate for growing
children: there is little milk and nc
sugar. The environment is that OF
displaced adults, jobless, bewailing the
loss Of their homes. The local schools
already insufficient, cannot accept the
additional burden of these newcomers
The whole situation Is demoraliZing.
The happiest children I saw among
these displaced people were those in
the children's colonies. These are
groups of children gathered together
with teachers, located in villas where
they pursue an educational and rec
reational routine not unlike that in a
camp or private school. The idea OF
putting the children into wholesome
surroundings away from the demoral-
lied refugees seemed 80 natural that
almost every well-meaning organiza-
tion in Spain seems to have started
children's colonies at some time since
the beginning of the war. Some OF
these were well run, some were not
Today they are all supervised and con.
trolled by the ministry Of education.
The children I saw in colonies o1
the Pyrenees foothills, for instance
seemed to have quite forgotten the
horrors Of war. They were norma
children, playing games, swimming
studying.
TT u nice hsre," they told me.
Yes, life was good In Ia Molina ant