Apology for Kids Shipped from Britain to Colonies

... "but we meant well" would be their excuse.

Apology for kids shipped from Britain to colonies
(11/15/09 AP via Yahoo News)

"LONDON – As many as 150,000 poor British children were shipped off to the colonies over three and a half centuries, often taken from struggling families under programs intended to provide them with a new start — and the Empire with a supply of sturdy white workers.

"Forty years after the program stopped, Britain and Australia are saying sorry to the child migrants, who were promised a better life only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home."

According to the article, this program was still on-going as late as 1967, with the bulk of "shipment" occurred from the late 19th century onward.

The reason?

"Authorities believed they were acting in the children's best interests, but the migration also was intended to stop them from being a burden on the British state while supplying the receiving countries with potential workers. A 1998 British parliamentary inquiry noted that "a further motive was racist: the importation of 'good white stock' was seen as a desirable policy objective in the developing British Colonies."" [emphasis is mine]

Good intention by the authority often ends in paving the way to Hell, particularly for the receiving end of that "good intention" (in this case, children).

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