August 26, 1940
Professor and Mrs. A.V. Hill
16 Bishopswood Road
Highgate, London, N. 6
England
Dear Professor and Mrs. Hill:
Two days ago I sent you the following cable: "Pasadena Committee offers homes maintenance forty children parents paying
ocean passage. Can you cable names necessary visa information fathers occupation" , and I am writing now to explain our situation
here. We have in Pasadean a local branch of the Committee for the Care of European Children, which has been active for the
last two months. Mrs. Schuyler Doane is the chairman of the Committee, and my wife and Dr. Theodore Dunham, Jr. of the Mount
Wilson Observatory are members of its Executive Board, Professor Millikan and I being members of the Advisory Board. The Committee
has so far found homes and sponsors in Pasadena for forty British children. The sponsors would take care of all expenses of
the children after they are landed in New York, and would take responsibility of the children for their indefinite sojourn
in the United States. All of the sponsors are certified by official agencies to be in good financial circumstances and to
be able to provide good homes for the children.
So far only a few children have reached Pasadena. Dr. and Mrs. Dunham have in their home the two daughters of Professor
and Mrs. Milne. the Committee has made several efforts to obtain names and information about specific children who might be
brought to Pasadena, but so far with little success, and my wife and I finally decided that the best course would be to write
to you. We were helped in reaching this decision through having read the letter which you sent on July 5 to Mr. and Mrs. Ronald
Ferry of Cambridge.
At present the arrangements must be made for specific children to be brought in by individual sponsors. We need the name
of each child, his birthday date and birthplace, and his parents' names and nationalities. In order to assist in assignment
of the children to sponsors we would like to know the father's profession and any other pertinent information that can be
easily sent. Our plan is to arrange for children to be taken into the most suitable homes.
I trust that you will pardon me for troubling you about this matter. Please let me know whether the situation is such
that you feel it is not wise to continue with our planned arrangements, or whether there is some other way for us to obtain
the information that we want. We all feel that by bringing some British children here we would be doing a bit to help, and
we have been troubled by the delay in getting our local organization into effective contact with Britain.
[2]
My wife and I have been working on the Union Now plan for combining with the British democracies and on the Committee
for the Defense of America by Aiding the Allies. There is quite a bit of defense work under way at the Institute, but in the
main the scientific activities of the Institute are proceeding undisturbed.
With the best of personal wishes, I am
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP:jr
cc sent with regular mail
