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Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31986, 13 May 1969, Page 2

Girl scouts in Korea devote more time to service projects than New Zealand girl guides, according to Miss Im Soon Jung, a schoolteacher and scout leader from Seoul. One of their biggest services was visiting soldiers in hospitals, entertaining them, sending gifts, and writing “for comfort,” she said in Christchurch yesterday.

Girl scouts also “lent their hands” to nurses in the over-crowded, under-staffed hospitals in South Korea, Miss Jung said.

They assisted the medical staffs after school, and during their holidays. Miss Jung said that the girl scouts were active in Korea’s anti-litter campaign and, in Seoul every spring, planted flowers along the streets to beautify the city. During rush hours, girl, scouts could be seen helping traffic officers, and taking charge in getting children across busy streets.

Miss Jung is in New Zealand to study guiding methods here. Yesterday, she attended a training day for Christchurch guides, aged from 14 to. 18. Senior guides, cadets, and rangers attended the training, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Organised by

the headquarter’s trainer. Miss M. Wood, it was the first of its kind, and was designed to bring together senior guides from the different

units “for friendship and enjoyment” Mrs Y. Keats spoke on skin care and deportment, Mrs N. M. Farnley on hairstyling and grooming, and Mrs B. Gough on floral decoration.

In the evening, the girls cooked an international dinner. Square dancing took up the rest of the evening. During the day, about 40 girls attended the training, but the number was swelled in die evening by another 20 working girls.

Discussions were held on ways of promoting the senior guide units, and uniforms.

Scouting was incorporated in school programmes in Korea, Miss Jung said. Brownies went to primary schools, intermediate scouts to junior high schools, senior scouts to senior high schools, and cadets to college. The maximum unmber for each troop was 32, so that

most schools had at least one troop. Although scouting was voluntary, it was included in special activities in school time.

Miss Jung said that there were about 10,000 girl scouts in Korea. Although the movement was developing strongly, language was its biggest barrier. “Scouting originated in England. It is much better in New Zealand that: your language is English,” she said. “When our national headquarters orders books for our girls, they all have to be translated. This is a very big job.” Although scouting started in Korea in 1946, it stopped almost completely between 1950 and 1953, during the Korean war. The movement was now enthusiastic, Miss Jung said.