Brit WWII hero accused of sex assault on children in '50s

SYDNEY -- One of Britain's most respected Second World War commanders has been accused of sexually assaulting destitute children sent to Australia as part of an imperial settlement scheme.

Field Marshal Viscount Slim [William Slim, 1891-1970], who routed the Japanese in the jungles of Burma, was appointed governor general of Australia [1953-60] after the war.

The war hero...allegedly groped underprivileged British children who had been sent to Australia as part of a now discredited plan to populate the Empire with the unwanted offspring of the working class...

The allegations against the war hero emerged during research for a new book, The Forgotten Children by David Hill, a former chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He was one of the 1,000 British children who passed through Fairbridge's Molong farm school between its founding in 1938 and 1974, when it closed.