THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE....

I wonder why it is and how it can be that, having lived for seventy years and spent most of my boyhood in the 40s and 50s, until today I had absolutely no idea that such a thing as the `child migration` to the then colonies of the British Empire took place.

Maybe, after all, I had a relatively sheltered upbringing, despite spending my first six years in wartime with the constant threat of bombing along the shores of Southampton Water. But I never had to experience the trauma of being `deported` - for that`s what it was - to some unknown corner of the world not knowing why or what might befall me.

The scale of the child migration policy has quite astonished me. Literally thousands of young children, some as young as three, removed from Britain and Malta, to Australia, Canada, Rhodesia as it then was and New Zealand. And it has been revealed that a large number of them were treated appallingly, suffering both physical and sexual abuse as well as deep seated psychological damage which, even after all these years, is still apparent in the interviews that have been given.

Now it`s just possible, although hardly defensible, that the Government at the time might have thought they were doing the right thing by these unfortunates, most of whom came from deprived backgrounds, orphanages and childrens homes. And it`s true, of course, that looking back from the vantage point of 2009, it`s easy to condemn the policy as inhumane, unthinking and just plain wrong. But I think we are right to condemn and the Governments of the UK and Australia are right to issue the albeit belated apology they are reported as making.

But as I look back down the years to my own childhood in those far off times, I am left to wonder about a few things. Firstly, whilst the apology is undoubtedly right, I wonder if it really will make any real difference to the victims and whether saying sorry really is enough both for them and for the rest of us, who may need a little more to salve our collective consciences. I wonder why I have lived all these years in blissful ignorance that this policy ever took place. But perhaps most of all, whilst my own upbringing might have failed the health and safety test, I wonder how my own life might have turned out had I been less fortunate than I was. As a child of those times, there but for the grace of divine providence I might have been among their number.