LORD AND LADY "B-P,"

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 36, 12 February 1931, Page 9

LORD AND LADY "B-P,"

THEIR TOUR DOWN UNDER BOY SCOUTS AND GIRL GUIDE* IDEALS AND CO-OPERATION. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January S. Next week Lord and Lady BadenPowell will embark 011 the Rangitata en route for New Zealand, and their visit must undoubtedly be of far-reaching influence to both the Girl Guide and BrScout movements. It is hard to say which of the protagonists of these two great movements is the greater enthusiast?" Indeed, "B-P" seems to be prouder of the Girl Guides and the extraordinary expansion of. the movement in 20 years than he is of the Scouts, for there are, in fact, already more than half a million Guides of every race. More and more, as Lord Baden-Powell told me when I talked to him at their headquarters in Buckingham Palace Road, do "the two movements lend to become one in their aims, ideals, and happy cooperation." Tlie visit to New Zealand of the two leaders cannot but put a crown to the already existing entente between them, an "entente" which is supremely "cordiale," the best proof of which" will be the combined Scout and Guide rally in Auckland on their arrival. Lord Baden-Powell is looking forward with the greatest eagerness to this visit to. New Zealand. He is .most anxioui to meet the leaders of the Scouts to discuss and solve all those problem? which at long range by correspondence take so much time and trouble to disentangle. Every movement has its worries, and more can be done to right them in a pow-wow by the camp fire than by reams of correspondence. The fact that Lord Baden-Powell is having Lieut.-Colonel E. P. le Breton with him on his tour will be specially welcomed by the Boy Scouts who canio to the Imperial Jamboree at Wembley ir. 1924, for Colonel le Breton was tlie assistant camp master at' that great assembly of boys from all parts of the . Empire. Colonel le Breton's experience here will make him a 'liaison officer ot the utmost value to the Scouts movement, and discussion of their difficulties cannot fail to provide solutions to many of them. In "B-P" himself, of course, the Boy Scout will see 1 that type of all-round development which it' is the Scout ,1 whole aim to achieve. Every facultv, physical and mental, is developed, ami is typical of the man who, as a schoolboy at Charterhouse, where he was nicknamed "Bathing Towel," was leader ir, all the Scouts arts, where he learne/i to snare rabbits and cook them in secret over a tiny bushman's fire; 110 learne how to use an axe, cross a gully 011 felled tree trunk, move silently through bush, hide his tracks, study birds, stoats, and watervoles. He learned, too, to be a marksman, "but," he says, "it was in the copse that I. gained wlm. • helped me to find the joy of "living." That is, of course, the whole joy Scout life now of ' two million boys scattered all .over the world. But winmade "B-P" the' inimitable' founder, an leader was his power as a mimic, ;< ' pianist, a fiddler, a comic, artist and : clown! Only a few months ago "B-P" sketch? formed a notable part of. the Arnrt Officers' Art Society. He exhibited tw< water colours and a number of huriioi ous black and white sketches. The Girl GuideSj if founded by "B-P." in fact founded themselves. In •IOO'. I tlie girls "just insisted 011 becomiii" SOQuts" and undoubtedlv their -gre'i 4 increase is due to. Lady Baden-Powell's energy arid enthusiasm. In its beginnings the Boy Scout headquarters were in rather a fix over this unlooked-fo v addition to their ranks; but tlifey hated to damp enthusiasm,'.and a somewhi't nonplussed secretary did his best to cope .with questions (to which there wore no real answers), and also further the requests for "recognition." Lord Baden-Powell realised at once that the name "Scout" in connection with girls was not .very appropriate, and that it might keep away many boys from what they hitherto considered a manly | pursuit. Hence,; tlie Guides, who ar; so much the same and yet so different The' thought of a world without ! Scouts arid Guides is unimaginable, for nothing else could have taken boys and girls of our towns out into the healthier life and occupations of the countryside.