The Catholics of the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle gave exactly £5,915 18s. 3d. to the Fund for the Basque children in the North Eastern Area.
These children, 277 of them, have now all been happily reunited with their parents in Spain.
The Bishop of the diocese, Mgr. Joseph McCormack, has written a pastoral letter thanking his people for their immense generosity. I4e condemns entirely the whole business of taking these children away from Spain.
" With you I assert most emphatically that the children should never have been brought to England. With you I say no less emphatically that I have no regrets for the part we played as Catholics."
The children have returned, the episode is finished happily, because the Catholics collected their pennies and sixpences with generosity when it was learned that, as the Bishop reveals:— " Those who had so recklessly brought the children away from their homes would give none of their funds to aid us."