THE DEFENCE ACT

New Zealand Tablet, 4 May 1911, Page 820

THE DEFENCE ACT

SENIOR CADETS AND BOY SCOUTS

(Extract from the Lyttellon Times, April 19.) Speaking yesterday to a representative of the Lyttelton Times, Major-General Godley stated that he desired to correct some erroneous ideas that had got abroad concerning the position of senior cadets and boy scouts under the Defence Act. ' There seems to be an impression in some quarters,' he said, that training in the boy scouts or boy scout cadets can take the place of training in the senior cadets. This impression is erroneous, and should be removed by all concerned with the boy scout organisation. ' The position is that, in order to assist the boy scout movement, the Defence Act has sanctioned the incorporation of boy scout units in the organisation of the senior cadets, who may be called boy scout cadets, and the military authorities accordingly are prepared to accept in the senior cadet companies or smaller units of boy scouts. By law, every youth between the ages of fourteen and eighteen must be a senior cadet, having become a senior cadet, there is then no objection on the part of the military authorities to his also being a boy scout should he so desire. In fact, I myself and the military authorities are thoroughly in sympathy with the boy scout movement, and I am vice-president of the boy scouts in the Dominion. But it is to be distinctly understood that every boy between fourteen and eighteen must be a senior cadet, and that, in the case of those who are boy scouts, he must be a senior cadet first and a boy scout or boy scout cadet afterwards. 1 'There also seems to be a further misapprehension that it is not necessary for boys now belonging to" the boy scouts or boy scout cadets to register themselves as senior cadets. This is wrong. Every boy between the ages of ; fourteen and eighteen, whether a boy scout or not, has by law to fill in a registration form and post it to the rest area sergeant-major, in accordance with the- military training notice lately issued, from the conditions of which boy scouts are no more exempt than any other class of the community. ! As regards the training of boy scouts in the senior cadet organisation, in which they will be incorporated as boy scout cadets, they will, in the first instance, have to

.perform the drills as . laid down by law and regulation for all senior cadets, namely, all youths, in the Dominion between fourteen and eighteen, and, having done that, they will then be free to do any special boy scout work that they please. As a matter of fact, a good deal of the senior cadet training will be on the same lines as that now done by the boy scouts, and, as has before been explained, the boy scouts will be given facilities for doing their senior cadet training in units composed entirely of boy scouts; and the military authorities will be glad to receive from the head of the boy scout movement any proposals for the formation of boy scout companies or smaller units. ' It is hoped that, in order to help the military authorities, and to avoid a great rush at the last moment, all youths between fourteen and eighteen belonging to the boy scouts will procure registration forms from : the post office, fill them in, and send them to the nearest area sergeant-major as soon as possible. . Major-General Godley added that Colonel Cosgrove, the Chief Scout, quite understood and agreed with the position. _ In an article published in the Lyttelton Times a short time ago, it had been stated that .' the decision of a boy scout to become a senior cadet is tantamount to resignation from the scouts,' and that ' boys who wish to become boy scout cadets in preference to senior cadets must first become boy scouts.' This was misleading, as any boy scouts and boy scout cadets between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were by law included in the senior cadets.