Help the Basque Children

As I posted earlier there was a fairly extensive aid network. Another of these organizations was the Basque Children's Committee (BCS) which was a part of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief (NJCSR).

The BCS took the lead in taking care of the initial wave of child refugees from the Basque lands. A little less than 4, 000 (3,886) children arrived aboard the steamship Habana (above) in Southamptom Docks off May 23, 1937.  These children were under the care of the BCS which were tasked with finding accommodations for them and the teachers (96), assistants (118), and Priests (16). These refuges were  housed in a camp in North Stoneham, expecting only 2,000 people the camp was to say the least overcrowded, which as one would expect became very unhealthy very quickly.

It was decided to place the children and their chaperones in various "Colonies" across Great Britain including one at 4 Great Smith Street, London SW1. Currently an office of the Department of Education.

By September of 1937 all of the children had been placed in these colonies. Other organizations pitched in and over a third of the children where supported by the Salvation Army and the Catholic Church.  When the war began to wind down the children that could be were repatriated to those areas that where it was safe for them to return. When the Second World War broke out in September of 1939 there were still about 400 refugee children in the U.K and by 1948 only 280 Basque children remained.

To help support the refugees the BCS issued a total of three fundraising stamps beginning in 1938. We were able to add two of them-these are the "Help the Basque Children" stamps. In total there were three stamps, two showing a young girl, and one a young boy. The one with the boy were issued first and have a different address on it-I will post more on this if I am able to grab a copy. The second stamps featuring the young girl were issued in green and red and was issued in December of 1938.

According to the Basque Children of '37 Association these were issued with a leaflet (see below):

“1,000 Basque children refugees are still enjoying the quiet peace and security that Great Britain has afforded them.They want to go on living here till the Spanish War is over and they can once more be united with their mothers and fathers, nearly all of whom are at present either political prisoners or refugees themselves. But it costs money to keep them and so they are asking you to help by buying some of these stamps to stick on your correspondence. A sheet of 24 stamps costs only 6d. It is very little, but if 100,000 people join together to help in this way, just think of what it will mean.”

The association indicates that in the Spanish Relief bulletin #15 of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief :"The Basque Children’s Stamp continues to enjoy a steady sale. To date it has brought us in a profit of more than a hundred pounds.”

Let us take a look at the stamps themselves. both are identical except for the colors. The feature a front profile of a young unnamed girl (the boy on the stamp is identified). The legend says "HELP THE BASQUE CHILDREN" DONATIONS TO 4 Great Smith St. London, SW1 and are Perf 11 1/4.