Cruel breaks with past

The "export" of children to Australia, Canada and New Zealand by some voluntary childcare agencies is not "Britain's guilty secret" (Don's Diary, THES , January 10). The subject has been covered in several books and on TV.

Geraldine Van Bueren cites the less laudable race reasons for this policy. There was another - that taking children away from "bad" home environments and the temptations of urban life would enable them to make a clean cut with their pasts. This belief helped drive slum clearances and garden cities. It was a product of its time.

Terry Philpot
Limpsfield, Surrey