BOY SCOUTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1940, Page 8

BOY SCOUTS

HISTORY OF MOVEMENT. Thirty years ago a group of some twenty boys were encamped on the little island of Brownsea off the coast of Dorset in England. This camp was an experiment. Its leader was then, Major General Sir Robert Baden Powell. Fresh from his gallant defence of Mafeking, he was the popular hero of the day. It can be imagined how the boys in this camp thrilled at the yarns spun by their hero around their camp fires. Demonstrations of woodcraft, interwoven with these yarns he gave them and most valuable of all a code of laws which this man considered to be a guide to a man in the conduct of his life. The boys, gathered from all stations of life, departed from that camp. This might have been the end of the experiment. But those boys knew a good thing when they saw it. Their leader had struck a cord which had fired their imagination, and satisfied their thirst for romance and adventure. Small patrols of boys were started by those boys. Thg book, Scouting for Boys, published in small cheap editions was ‘ eagerly read by other boys and young men. A great movement grew in strength. It spread throughout the Empire. Thoughtful men from other countries were attracted to it, and international scouting started. It seems almost providential that girls were too attracted by this “game.” For in the birth of the Girl Guide movement this great International Movement became a force. Young men and women embracing a common ideal have for thirty years been infilterating the peoples of the world. Today the active membership totals some 41 million boys and girls of over forty nations. In this country which was one of the first to take up scouting it numbers 12,440 active members. The past year has shown an increase of 2,000. The world census shows an increase of a quarter of a million, and this in spite of the crushing of the movement in Russia Germany and Italy.

During the present state of the world a sacred duty is thrown upon those of us who are not called upon to do military service. The most essential service to bring real victory to the efforts of our fighting men. The care of youth during the war years so that they may be guided through the strain and bewilderment, emerge courageous and armed with a realisation of true values and be able to stand steady during the back wash of war. The Scout movement -offers a fine channel of National Service to those who cannot give military service. Many Scoutmasters are daily joining up and many troops find themselves without their elder brothers. The maintaining of the movement will, therefore, fall upon the Patrol Leaders and Group Committees. These Patrol Leaders can, and will, under guidance of an older head, carry on. Dominion Headquarters is prepared to issue letters of authority to men 'on committees, or those not in the movement, on the recommendation of the local Commissioner. It is not derised that these men become Scoutmasters, but that they take charge of meetings and help the Patrol Leaders to maintain order, etc. In the last Great War, 100,000 Scouts were on active service. Ten thousand of these made the supreme sacrifice and eleven were awarded the VJC. “Hitler met the enthusiasm of his nation’s youth with enthusiasm and led it into evil channels. We can harness that same enthusiasm for high ideals —if we will lead with enthusiasm,” stated Mr J. R. H. Cooksey, Dominion Commissioner for Training, who is at present visiting Masterton.