COMRADESHIP.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 October 1924, Page 1

COMRADESHIP.

THE VALUE OF BOY SCOUTS. (By John Blunt in Daily Mail). The great gathering at Wembley of 12,0!)!) Roy Scouts from every portion of tho Empire is a line lesson, which might well lie taken to heart by their elders, of the value of comradeship. These lads, fired h.v a common ideal of loyalty and service, are a living example of what can he achieved by a sound upbringing and are a prool, if proof were needed, that the philosophy of hate and unrest which is so popular to-day is utterly barren and hopeless. The heroic episodes of history. Irom isolated actions, like Scott’s Dash to the - South Pole, to actions that involve the hole nation, like the European war, have proved again and again that comradeship is perhaps the must splendid quality than an animate mankind. and the one, almve all others, that brings out what is best and noblest in human nature. When we survey society to-day and realise to what an extent selfishness has taken the place unselfishness we might almost think that the moral of the war has been lost. Dissension,

class hatred, rivalry, have, in large masses of the population, usurped the spirit of comradeship and brotherhood, the spirit of patriotism and resolve, which enabled the Allies to emerge victoriously from more than four years of frightful warfare. BE TOLER ANT. The world can never _ recover until people in general perceive that progress is possible only when they try to draw closer to one another, not when they distrust one another. The basis of comradeship is understanding and tolerance, and that is why it can accomplish so much. People meeting round a table benefit one another far more than people who yell insults across a street.

Yet. obvious though this must appear to anv dislinterested person, tho yelling habit is. so to speak, growing. The great idea nowadays is to be convinced that people who do not see eye to eye with you are either fools or knaves—and to let. them know* it. Rut neither human nature nor its problems ars usually pure black or pure white, and people, like the Bolsheviks, who instil hate and violence as the essence of their creed are doing their utmost to ruin civilisaton. not to build it up. or even, as they would say. mould it anew. AN ANTIDOTE. T ran imagine no more convincing antidote to those poisonous teachings than an institution like the Boy Scouts which preaches tho very reverse of hatred and misunderstanding—comradeship and sympathy. There von have a true and fruitful ideal for' the youth of the Empire. AVheii one sees boys from many different. portions of it assembled together i,n one vast family party one cannot but accept it as a favourable augury of the future. While their elders wrangle, those hoys are learning Die great lesson of comradeship. Ami when llieir turn comes to take over the helm surely this lesson will not he forTn any crisis comradeship is essential if it is to Ik> faced successfully, hut let us not forget that many serious crises would not arise if comradeship were not merely called forth by an emergency.