BOY SCOUTS AND CADETS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 91, 19 April 1911, Page 2

BOY SCOUTS AND CADETS.

THEIR POSITION IN THE DEFENCE SCHEME. STATEMENT BY~THE COMMANDANT. [bs teleghaph — psess association.] CHRISTCHURCH, 18th April. Major-General Godky, General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces, states that .thera seems to be au impression in some quarters that training in the Boy Scouts or Boy Scout Cadets can take the nlace of training in the Senior j Cadets. This impression is erroneous, and 6hould be removed by all concerned with the Boy Scout organisation. The position, is that in order to assist the Boy Scout movement the Defence Act has sanctioned the incorporation of Boy Scout units in the organisation of senior cadets who may be called Boy Scout Cadets. By law every youth between the ages, of fourteen and eighteen must be a' Senior Cadet. Having become a Senior Cadet there is then no objection on the part of the military authorities to his l>eing also a Boy Scout should he so desire; in fact; General Godley and the military authorities are thorougftly in sympathy with the Boy Scout movement, and General Godley is vice-president 1 of the Boy Scouts in the Dominion. But it is distinctly to be understood toat, every boy between fourteen and eighteen must be a- Senior Cadet, and that in the case of those who are Boy Scouts ne must be a Senior Cadet first and a Boy Scout or Boy Scout Cadet afterwards. There also seems to be a further misapprehension that it is not necessary for boys now belonging to Boy Scouts or Boy Scout Cadets to register themselves as ' Senior Cadets. This is wrong. Every boy between the ages of fourteen and eighteen,, whether a Boy Scout or not, has by law to fdl in a, registration form and post it to the nearest area sergeantmajor in accordance* with the military training notice lately issued, from conditions of which Boy Scouts are no more exempt than any other class of tne community. As regards the training of Boy Scouts in the senior cadet organisation in which they will be incorporated as Boy Scout Cadets, they -will in the first instance harve to perform the drills, etc., as laid down by law and regulation for all senior cadets (i.e., all youths in the Dominion between fourteen and eighteen), and having done that they will then be free to do any special Boy Scout work that they please. As a matter of fact, a good deal of the senior ca-det training will be on the same lines as that now done by the Boy Scouts, and, as ha« been explained, the Boy Scouts will be given facilities for doing their senior cadet training in units composed entirely _of Boy Scouts, and the military authorities will be glad to receive ironi the head of the Boy Scout movement any proposals for the formation of Boy Scout companies or smaller units. It is hoped that in order to help the military authoritieb and avoid a great tush at the last moment all youths between fourteen and eighteen belonging to the Boy Scouts will procure registration forms from the Post Office, fill them in, and send them to the nearest area sergeant-major as soon as possible.