SCOUTS OVERSEAS

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1940, Page 6

SCOUTS OVERSEAS

rover crew in egypt THE FUTURE OF SCOUTING COMMISSIONER'S VIEWS Former New Zealand Scouts and Scouters now stationed with the expeditionary force in Egypt are continuing in their peacetime interests. "The army is a hard school." stated Mr. H. J. L. Cooksey, New Zealand Boy Scouts' Commissioner, to a Daily News representative at Hawera and the provision of a eommon taond so firmly based and principled as the Scout movement can do a lot to aid young men." "A small group of pre-war Scouts and Scouters have had a reunion dinner in Egypt," he continued, "and after a discussion it was decided that a r.over crew of men interested in Scouting, or who had former connections with the association, should be formed." Crew of 29 in Few Days. Twenty-nine men joined that crew within a few days of its inception, with the Rev. Hyde, former commissioner of the Wairoa district, at its head. That was typical of the movement, Mr. Cooksey stated. Boy Scout training had for its foundation principles that stressed the importance of unselfishness and fellowship. Scouts or Scouters going overseas in the forces are being issued with a special identification card printed by the association at Wellington. The object of this is to create an "introductory service" whereby holders may make use of the facilities offered by fellow Scout4 in all Scouting countries, and to provide some definite link for men of whom the majority are strangers. The international scope of the organisation was one of its greatest possibilities, stated Commissioner Cooksey. A universal brotherhood had been created which might, if the nations concerned could or would only realise it, have inflnite possibilities in the future. Basis of Totalltarian Moves. "It is very noticeable," he said, "that in the totalitarian States whenever leaders have started youth movements such as the Young Fascisti or the Hitler Youth movement, they have severed all connections with the Boy Scouts' Association. Most of the system employed complies exactly with that of the Boy Scout movement. In fact, the reading matter of the dictators' youth movements could be compared almost page for page with 'Scouting for Boys,' written by Lord Baden-Powell, but periodically noxious vituperation worthy of Dr. Goebbels will appear," the commissioner continued. Some countries, such as Chile, had made the Boy Scouts a national movement, Mr. Cooksey concluded, and for the benefit of generations to come it was hoped that realisation of the war work of the organisation on a large scale in Great Britain, and in a humble way in New Zealand, would bring home to the public the possible future of the movement.