“Vietnam” Contest For Scouts Criticised

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30954, 10 January 1966, Page 6

“Vietnam” Contest For Scouts Criticised

“Boy Scouts or Toy Soldiers?” is the heading on a letter to the editor of “The Press” from the chairman of the Peace For Vietnam Committee (Mr L. W. Reid). Mr Reid quotes the following report printed in the Nelson “Evening Mail” on December 14:—

“ ‘ You are a party of saboteurs parachuted into North Vietnam to destroy an important bridge. You are disguised as boy scouts in order to fool the hostile natives . . . Trust no-one but friendly natives, who will use the password Freedom.’ These were the instructions given to three

teams of venturer scouts from throughout the district who took part in a night competition on Saturday . . . From the top of a tree a compass bearing was made on a point in the valley to enable artilllery to be ranged on it. .. the teams were asked to estimate the distance to a point in the valley in order that mortars might be set up to destroy it . . . The competition proved so popular that it is hoped to make it an annual event.” “No comment would be needed on this, if thousands of New Zealand parents had not believed scout leaders’

ssurance that there is no military aim or meaning in scouting for boys,” says Mr Reid. “These parents have the right now to ask some questions.

“Has Baden-Powell’s original concept of a peaceful, friendly, international organisation been altered, locally, to prepare our children for a long, dirty war defending America’s toehold in Southeast Asia? If so, parents of boys wishing to join the scouts will have been warned by the antics described above. “If the policy has not been altered, will those in authority, ensure that there will be no more such military exercises in Nelson or anywhere else? Only thus, surely, can they show obedience to their founder’s law,” Mr Reid says.