Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1929 THE SCOUTS’ GREAT JAMBOREE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 1 August 1929, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1929 THE SCOUTS’ GREAT JAMBOREE

THE great meeting of Boy Scouts during the fomiight,. 31st July to I3lli August, proves as never before the world-wide influence of this movement which was initiated by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, twenty-one years ago-, to turn the enthusiasms and idealisms of vouth into channels which should lead to healthy, upright, and ideal manhood. As he himself has said, “Ihe training A Scouts combines the development of l,odv, mind, and spirit through methods which appeal to the boy and encourage his self-education in those particulars. It is entirely non-military, non-political, i.on-class, and interdenominational; open

in all who can subscribe to the promise tn do their duty to God, their country,

The appeal which fosters tliese high principles is made, through the hoy s love of Nature and of wild creatures living in a state of nature, to his inherent

love of comradeship, fair play, kindliness, and helpfulness. On that broad and lolly piano of human sympathy are united nearly two million Bov iSrouts, wsideut- in forty-two countries, situated in all four quarters of the globe, from Canada to Japan, and from Britain to Fiji. All those countries are represented at this the third, international Jamboree ; the fifty thousand Scouts (assembled at Arrowo Park, near Birkenhead, in Cheshire, and in two subsidiary

camps at Overclmrch and Upton nearby) being drawn from twenty-five-parts of the British Empire and forty-one other countries. Indeed, the only two great nations which are not represented are Russia, where the Scout movement is impossible because of the atheistic and malevolent- character of its barbarous Government, and iji Italy, where the regime of Fascism absorbs all the energies and idealism of the youth of the nation. Indeed the Communists have declared war on the Scout movement, “because it is capturing tins youth of the different countries,” and is inculcating in thorn patriotism, loyalty, good citizenship, a. robust hatred of meanness, Cruelty, double-dealing, falsehood, intrigue, and all those qualities which make Bolshevism detested throughout the civilised world. To show how comprehensive is the benevolent expansiveness of the Scout movement, it may he slated that at t.ho great camp at Arrowo Parle there are present troops of blind, deaf, dumb, and crippled Scouts, the burden of whose physical deficiencies is lightened, and their lives made blight, and happy, by the camaraderie and helpfulness which the Scouts’ rule insures. But the good influences oT the movement penetrate even further than that. Sir Robert Baden-Powell recently told the story of a troop of Boy Scouts being formed in a prison in Ceylon, the ameliorative effect being plainly evident in the lives ol those enrolled, one member, serving a life sentence, “performing some of the best reporting work. Ho had been allowed out on parole to make his solitary journeys and had always kept faith.” Such, then, are samples of the fruit produced hv this magnificent movement for training hoys irf manliness and uprightness while fostering their love of adventure in close association with Nature. Sir Robert has found that the way to a hoy’s heart is by encouraging his love of an out-of-door life, his interest in the wild creatures, his love of his fellows, his natural inclination to fun and frolic; and, having secured his confidence and regard, finds the way easy to inculcate those high qualities which make for stability of character, good citizenship, patriotism and liumanitarianisni.