CITIZENSHIP WRIT SMALL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 459, 9 April 1948, Page 10

CITIZENSHIP WRIT SMALL

Young People’s Clubs as Corrective to Delinquency

HIS was meant to be a formal interview, but actually it was, to me at least, just a pleasant and interesting conversation with a remarkable Englishman and his alert wife and fellow worker. Mr. and Mrs. Basil Henriques, who are visiting New Zealand ‘under the aegis of the British Council, have worked for the greater part of their lives among the boys and girls of East London, running Youth Clubs. Mr. Henriques is impressive not only in height and bearing, but also for ‘his kindliness and informality. "Perhaps F had better start at the beginning and tell you how I came to be interested in Boys’ Clubs," he said. "As an undergraduate at Oxford I went down to the Bermondsey and Oxford Mission run then by Sir Alexander Paterson. He was a great Borstal man, you know. I was amazed at the Christian life of fellowship that was lived there, atthe men who, knowing that they had something to give, were prepared to live in the poorest parts of London to help their fellowmen. There were men like

John Stansfeld-you must have heard of him-he was the generation before me-he did a tremendous work starting the Bermondsey Mission. He was a medical man and he got the boys who came into his surgery. He made them gargle and then asked them ‘Do you believe in God’ and while they were still gurgling and spluttering joined them up for his club. Sounds crude, but it worked. In those days the Public School boys and Varsity undergraduates came down believing that they could do a great work by living Christian lives with the poor." — Two-way Traffic "And is that still so to-day?" To-day it is rather different. In those days they came to give. Now they come to share and also to learn. It’s a twoway traffic. But to go back to my story. I was amazed at the fellowship based on Christianity shown by the Mission workers. It was a challenge to me as:to whether Judaism could produce the same returns. In 1914 I opened a small boys’ club in Stepney-just a little room and 30 boys. At thé end of the year I felt that the girls needed the same, outlook, so I asked the young woman who was doing the First Aid in the Club to start a girls’ club. That was in 1915. In 1916 the inevitable had happened." Mr. and Mrs. Henriques smiled at each other over the long vista of 32 years of work shared and enjoyed. "And our family grew-to 3,000 members. Oh yes, all sizes and ages, Infant Societies to Burial Societies-from the cradle to the grave. Now we have 400 children of old members and four grand-children-our great grandchildren, we call them. In 1930 we were given £65,000. We changed our name to the Bernhard Baron Settlement. Eighteen of our original members still come up once a week and I need hardly say that the old boys and girls of our Club are the valued leaders of to-day. I was very oud of our boys during the war. We. had 600 boys from the Club serving in the Forces and 38 per cent. became

officers or N.C.O.’s. You know they started with a handicap — mostly Jewish." mt "Ts that a handicap in Britain?" "Yes, if you have a foreign-sounding name." And have you still mainly Jewish members?" "All sorts. We have a lot of Negroes and West Indians to-day who have fecently settled in the dock areas. They join-all sorts, all races, all creeds and denominations. They all have to live together and get on together-and they do." "Have you found comparable clubs in New Zealand?" "Not for girls," said Mrs, Henriques. "There are the Church Clubs and the Y.W.C.A. Clubs, which I am sure are very good, but I doubt whether they get the girls that would ordinarily be out on the streets at night." Sports Clubs to Start With "We saw a very fine boys’ club in Christchurch," said Mr. Henriques. "And you seem to have plenty of Sports Clubs. That is very good, but they should cover a lot more than just sport. Every club could start as a sports club -that’s a good bait-but the goal of the club should be the right use of leisure. It should train citizens for the kind of state in which they live. I’d like to use an expression-only my wife is tired of hearing me say it." He glanced sideways. "It’s all right," said Mrs. Henriques, "T’ll stop my ears. It’s worth saying even if he does say it a bit often." "Well then, membership of a club is citizenship writ small. You learn to give loyalty. You learn how to govern and be governed. A Nazi club will train its young people in the ways of a Nazi state. We believe in democratic waysquite different and very important. That is why sports clubs are not enough by themselves. We virtually continue school for young people who have left school

-not in the classroom, not with teachers, but by atranging all sorts of activities and developing all sorts of potentialities: art, drame, music. What small boy doesn’t whistle as he goes down the street? That shows he likes music; only his liking for it must be brought out and given a chance to express itself. He likes jazz and boogie woogie now, but he probably has it in him to enjoy other and more worthwhile music -given the chance. We try to give him that chance to express himself, to act and to draw, and to make things, and to talk and to play chess or anything else. Yes, sport is a good bait, but the real club soon becomes an extension of family and home life into a wider circle." Voluntary Helpers Are Needed "When you began most of the work with clubs was done voluntarily. Is that still true or indeed possible to-day?" "No. It is not by any means all done voluntarily to-day. There isn’t the leisured class to-day for one.thing. But club work must be a vocation. The National Association of Boys’ Clubs have a college, St. Pierre, at Chepstow in Wales, where men are trained in the technique of Club leadership. It is quite a short training-six months-but it is varied. For instance, all trainees are given the historical background of the working boy, the legislation which concerns him, Health Insurance and so on, so that the club leadet is equipped to advise a boy. The trainees are by no means only university men. .We have a number of ex-servicemen at present interested in this type of work. But, may I add, we are quite certain that ‘we cannot depend only on full-time salaried leaders. We must also have as many voluntary helpers prepared to give unselfish service in the interests of the community. "What about New Zealand? We have virtually no leisured class to draw on for youth leaders." "But you don’t need a leisured class. You just need people prepared to give service voluntarily-and they would enjoy it too," said Mr. Henriques.

"We met plenty of splendid young teachers, for instance, in Christchurch," said Mrs. Henriques. "They were full of enthusiasm and new ideas. If they were prepared to give an evening or two a WOE. 6 ee "Look at your Repertory Societies. Surely some of the enthusiasts would enjoy running a Drama group in a club?" "Or you could find a local craftsman, say a carpenter, who would run a woodwork class in his spare time." "Qr someone who is keen on, say, chess to start a chess group." Yes, I thought, or a Mr. and Mrs. Henriques to give the preliminary shove. "And it IS being done, but not enough." Neutralizing the Delinquent "And of course clubs are a good weapon against delinquency," I commented. "Much more than that. The average delinquent does wrong because he has nothing better to do. We try to offer positive ways of using leisure, which are better than just going to the pictures and races and boxing matches. We do prevent delinquency. The delinquent just gets swallowed up. in the club." "But you have had hard nuts to crack at times?" "Oh yes. They have cracked us too! But before I could follow that up, I was at the end of my time, and I still had questions to ask about picture clubs, the increase of delinquency during the war, New Zealand institutions for delinquents, and so on. I did, however, mention the last and Mr. Henriques gave an unqualified reply. | "I have seen only your Burwood Girls’ School as yet," he said, "but that is the best institution for pirls I have seen. I believe the girls there under Miss Scotter are really being educated away from their delinquent habits." : And with that Mr. and Mrs, Henriques were wafted into a car and driven to their next appointment.

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