50,000 SCOUTS GATHER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 729, 31 July 1929, Page 9

50,000 SCOUTS GATHER

VAST JAMBOREE HELD IN BRITAIN WONDERFUL ASSEMBLAGE (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON, Tuesday. . By tonight 50,000 Boy Scouts will be under canvas in Arrowe Park, Birkenhead, assembled for the world jamboree. One writer describes it as the most wonderful gathering of representatives of the nations of the world seen since the building of the Tower of Babel came to an untimely end. All day yesterday trainload after trainload of Scouts arrived and reported to headquarters. Boys from Australia and New Zealand fraternised with American boys in tartan lumber jackets. Sea Scouts, dressed in the pork pie caps of the American Navy, conversed with boys from Canada. Bright little Japanese lads were to be seen talking with giants from Scandinavia. Everybody seemed to be concerned that a solitary boy from the Fiji Islands should not feel lonely. When the Duke of Connaught opens the jamboree on Wednesday there will be only two countries not represented officially—Russia and Italy. The great undulating jamboree city covers 450 acres of ground. The area has been broken up with roads, picturesque names such as Pilgrim’s Way, Lion, Horse and Bull Alley, Kangaroo, Mongoose and Tiger Lane. Everywhere is the same wonderful spirit of camaraderie. Throughout yesterday afternoon many rehearsals were held of the great pageants to be staged before the Prince of Wales on Thursday and Friday.