WOLF CUBS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 675, 30 October 1933, Page 6

WOLF CUBS

SILVER WOLF

"PLAYING THE GAME" EXAMPLE SET BY SCOUTS DURING THE GREAT WAR OTHER HEROIC ACTIONS Dear Cubs, The Chief Scout says he remembers Lord Beresford taking him, over his ship one time, and as they crawled about in the low chambers near the bottom of the ship, where the watertight doors kept the men imprisoned and unable to escape in the event of the ship going down, he said : "These are the plucky men, the ones who work down here doing their duty unseen, getting none of the fun and none of the .glory; but without them the ship would never get along and the battle could not be won." But these men are just what we

would like every man in the country to be. Working away at his duty, helping in his own place unseen, unnoticed, but doing it because it is his duty, and no because he expects t'o get fun out of it or glory. Jack Cornwell, V-C. Many hundreds of your brother scouts served on the ships of the Grand Fleet and the battle-cruiser squadron during the Great War. Admirals and officers of their ships wrote to the Chief Scout telling him of the good discipline and fine spirit shown by men. Some of the officers told him that they liked boys who had been Scouts better than those who came to the Royal Navy from training ships, because they could be trusted to do their work without having somebody always there to look after them and to see that they did not idle their time.

Scouts can be relied on to do their duty no matter what it costs them. It cost one of them his life. That was Jack Cornwell. He was on duty with one of the guns on board H.M.S. Chester in the battle of Jutland ip June 1916. The crew of the gun were all shot down, except two. Many a man would then have run away or taken cover as he could not possibly work the gun by himself ; but he stood there, though badly wounded, in case he should be wanted. He stuck it out in pain and suffering, with his comrades dead and dying round him. He afterwards died of his wounds, but he had done his duty nobly and had shown that a Scout could be trusted to "stick it out" even though he died forrit. Even a olf Cub is not too young to be a hero. Here at rate are two examples which happened to come next to each other in the newspapers. The Wolf Cub Pack is going strong and has in its ranks the youngest boy in Great Britain to hold the Royal Life-Saving Society's certificate for proficiency in life-saving. The award is also held by many of the scouts. The Wolf Cubs attached to the 9th Glasgow Group have got a good example in the deed of one of their members, Walter Pitkeathly, who lost his life saving his younger brother. On April 29 Pitkeathly, . who was ten year old, and his brother were playing near a water-filled quairy, when the younger boy fell into the water. Walter without hesitation jumped into the rescue, and although he succeeded in bringing his brother to the bank, he himself fell back into the water exhausted and was drowned. Yrmrs Cubbilv,