COMMISSIONER'S LETTER

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 9

COMMISSIONER'S LETTER

"ROBIN HOOD."

Dear Scouts,-^Last Tuesday was St. Andrew's Day. Every Scout knows the St. Andrew's Cross on our Union Jack -^the white cross froffl cother to corner of the flag, and we have all been told that in 1606 James I. of England and VI. of Scotland, having made the tivo kingdoms one, combined St.. Andrew's Cross with that of St. George. The cross of St. AndreAV is a saltire, it being made of two pieces of timber driven into the ground to which the Saint was tied instead of being nailed. Tradition says that Andrew felt that it Avas too great an honour to bo crucified as was his Lord, and gained from liis persecutors this colicession fi'om aa'liich unpleasant position he continued for tAvo days to preaeh. Wliy Scotland cliose St. AnclreAV as her patron Saint in 740 is bound Up in tho folloAA'ing legends. In 370 Regulus a Gi'eek monk Avlio had the relics of the Saipt in his keeping, Avas warned in a vision that the Empei'ot Constantine was going to remove them to Constantmople, and that he must at once carry them away over the sea to the Avest. After an adventurous voyage Avith six conipanions the vessel Avas dashed upon a rock, 'and they landed on an unknoAvn shore. The natives listened to their story and gave them land ,011 wliich to build a church where the relics Avere enslirined. The land proved to be Caledonia, and the little church and hamlet that sprang up around it is now the city of St. AndreAvs in Scotland. Another legend tells how this cross appeared in the sky to Achaius, King of the Scots, the night before a great battle with Atlielstan, and being victonoUs he a\ent bare foot to the church of St. AndreAV and a'OAved to adopt his cross as the national device. Is it not interesting how these legends have been handed doAvn to us from the days« before history Avas writfccn ? — Yours evei*