SCOUTS URGED TO WORK FOR PEACE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31879, 6 January 1969, Page 1

SCOUTS URGED TO WORK FOR PEACE

Officially opening I the jamboree on Saturday afternoon, Sir Arthur Porritt appealed to the scouts to work for peace in the world. He urged them also to know their own countries and their own people. “If the pakeha children of New Zealand learnt a few words of the Maori language we might not have some of the problems we have today,” he said. “If there is anything we need today it is peace—something we might all work for," he said.

Sir Arthur Porritt likened the jamboree to the great

sporting events of the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games. There were thousands of good contacts the scouts from the participating countries could make and continue for the rest of their lives, he said. Just as the original Olympic Games had been set up to ensure a time of peace so, too, could the jamboree be the source of future contacts among the youth of the participating countries to lead to international peace. The jamboree was a time of celebration and merrymaking for scouts. It was a celebration of the memory of the founder of the scout movement, Lord Baden-Powell. “He started from a very small beginning and through his vision set up the greatest

youth institution in the whole world,” Sir Arthur Porritt said. I

“Scouting has become a tradition and I want you as scouts to realise that tradition is vastly important. We cannot live a worth-while life without it.” To attend a jamboree and take part in the celebrations and merry-making with fellow scouts made the activities more worth while and enjoyable. Sir Arthur Porritt said that his experience as an administrator of Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games had made him realise their great influence for good among the participants. Although incidents between the competitors might be made much of, there were thousands of examples of close personal friendships started at the games.

There was a time when Rugby football had been

played at the Olympic Games at the behest of one of the co-founders of the modern Olympic Games, who was a master at a school in Rugby, Sir Arthur Porritt said. He hoped the other sports of boxing, karate and judo would soon be taken out of the game of Rugby. He added that one of the benefits of attending a jamboree was the travel involved in getting there. This should be encouraged, Sir Arthur Porritt said, but he recommended that scouts should become familiar with their own countries before going away. It was essential that people know their own country and the people in it. Sir Arthur Porritt stayed in the camp overnight. He had the evening meal on Saturday''with a Gisborne troop and breakfast yesterday with some of the Australian contingent