A MILLION SCOUTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5348, 7 November 1928, Page 1

A MILLION SCOUTS.

BADEN POWELL’S CHALLENGE. STORY OF THE MOVEMENT. . The. Boy Scqut movement has celebrated its ■ 21st birthday. There are to-day. 340,000' Boy Scouts in Britain alone, and almost every other country in the world ptyw. its quota to the ever-growing ranks of his, great organisation. In the article below? General Sir. Robert Baden Rqwell, the Chief Scout and founder of the movement 21 years ago, tells the rcpantic story icjf the; birth of the Scouts at an informal camping party in 1907, and apeuks of tile great spirit and the .finfe ideals which permeate, this wonderful bd<ly of the world’s youth.

British youth'Has been accused, of rnajjy unpleasant things recently. The young man of tOf-day has .had! to facfi charges of effeminacy, has been called a mollycoddle, and has, been told repeaedly that ■he has no) grit and 110 adventurous spirit. . With these accusations I entirely disagree, he states. TO-day the young men are just as fine a iRt as they were 20 years ago—indeed, they are) fi'ner. And the spirit of adventure is certainly not dead l

I cannot, of course, ejakn that the Boy scout movement is responsible for all the improvement, but I do believe) that it brought about seme part of it.

It is) just 21 years bgq that the Boy Stouts come into being. It was, nqt an organised birth, as it were —it just happened.

I had had 'something to doj a,t the time with the Bbys’ Brigade, and I suggested to, itg organisers that they should introduce; into their routine some of the principles of “scouting” which we had been promoting in the c.avalry. This “scouting” had! proved immensely successful in the Army. It was :a, change frejm dreary drilling and filled young sqld’iers with an enthusiasm for their work. The idea of “scouting” was to get the) men out into the country, teach them to observe things;, give them a sense of responsibility, and acquaint them with some of the useful arts of the old bac.kwoodsmen. It is a notable fact that aftqr this had been introduced into the Army routine desertions!, which been all tod frequent, before, sank almost tq zero. • The Boys’ Brigade adopted the ideas to a certain extent. Then I tried the experiment qf taki’ng a party of boys to camp down near, Bournemouth. This' was in 1907. ■ I chose tw’o bo(ys from Eton, one from Harrow, and several shop boys. I also gqt an clergymap to send a quota. These lads formed the camp, it was a great s,ucc,e?s. After this I was asked to write a book on scouting, i published one in fortnightly parts. Not long after I had many requests fropi boys all Over the* country for further information. They wa,nte 1 to start their own troops. So numerous were these requests that

I suggested a rally of thqse interested at the Crystal Palace, London. In 1909 the rally was; held. Over 11,00’0 boys attended. It was plain, therefore, that if, without organisation, 11,000 boys could be interested in scquting in less than two years, there was a. demand fqr an official movement. And so the Boy scouts, beca,me an organised body. We are now 340,000 strong, and we have to turn away many applicants for. membership each week. That is because- we cajmQt get enough scout-

masters. This lack of scoutmasters is'partly due to .t.he wan We lost thqta spare 10,000 young men who might have occupied such positions had they lived. Then there are toe many men today ,wh*' do Jiqt realise the duty they owe to the community. They will not sacrifice one second of their spare time for the public gpod. They ’hurry to play golf, tennis, go bathing nr motor-cycling the momenlt they are free, and would be very indignant if they were asked to come to I’Qok after Bc.y Scouts instead. But that is because they dq not realise- how much real pleasure they can get out of the movement, and 1 be-

cause they do dot understand !ho,w ta-uch good the Boy Scout spirit and ideals can do. I believed that these idefals, if widely adapted, might meap the end of industrial strife. Certainly they would go a Icjng way towards bringing about a better. understanding between -the

employer and the; working man. For. the Boy Sc.out is trained' tot sink all personal feeling and even personal gain for the common good. Cq-opera-tion and friendliness at all costs is his watchword. And when the Boy Scout becomes a man he sticks t<4 these ideals, and, wha,t is much morte, them. The movement may even go a long way towards outlawing war, .for e/very year now parties of Scouts from all countries visit Scouts in Britain, and British Scouts go abroad .The. boys get on famously with each other, and many very strong international friendships are being cemented in this way annually. We have now close ojjn two millton Scouts distributed in 40 different nations. '

Let me give you a little prqoif of how great a hold the Boy Stout spirit can get on a man. The other day a foreign delegate visited me in-London. He mentioned that the Boy. Scput movement in America paid many of its cjfficers. I told him wej paid none. He could not understand how men who worked through the day coull! be induced tej do . more work in their spare time without further pay. As he was. speaking" a scoutmaster passed. I did not know this scoutmaster, but I. called him up.

“What do you do for a living?” I asked.

“I am a railway signalman)” he replied.

“What time off do you get 7” “Saturday evenings andl Sundays,” was the 'qjiswer.

“Theni whqn do, you find time to spare to train your troqp ?” “I train them on Saturday evenings and Sundays,” sajd) the scoutmaster. “Do you get. any money for iit?” I asked him.

“No, sir,” hei answered“sometimes I even have to pay out a little foff the boys. But I like it, and it gives the lads pleasure.” My foreign friend thought it was

“just too wonderful” ; but tha,t is only, a typical incident of the; British Scout ■spirit. . ■ ■■

There are some people jvhq ;think that because the. Boy Scolits ape uniformed apd are into troops they are a military body—boys* being trained for war. This is exactly opposite to the fact, instead, the movement aims to promote a love for «%-. ture, the countryside, and peace. "We have' even refused to reedgnisie some Germap sq-c ailed “Boy gcout” organisations because they were run on military lines. ’ 7 .

- There arq more Girl Guides in this country than there are Boy Scouts.-, The reasqpf for this is that there are more women at liberty tot give- their spare time to the movement become officers than mep. But there are plenty of men, nevertheless, who- could easily find enough time to do gopd- work if they would be a little less absorbed in their own interests e<r. pleasure.; I otfice said that I. would not die .until there were; a million; British Boy Scouts. Perhaps I may have to liwe to be a hundred to* see this. Biit I still have hopes.

It is, not that there are nob plenty of boys whq are desperately ’keen] to" join—I have already saidi that we have to refuse) hundreds weekly—ifc is that more patriotic men are nended to; come in whole-heaytedly to give their time to| the hjatien’s youth, if even only a small percentage would! do this the gre|at spirit of the Boy scouts would be instilled into hundr eds of thousands more lads every yeair, and the country would soon have ju large body of men unequalled in character in the who-le world, ajid I personally should be free to shuffle) off this - mortal soil the sooner.