HOW SCOUTING BEGAN

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 123, 18 February 1935, Page 10

HOW SCOUTING BEGAN

Movement Which Spread Over World FIRST CAMP IN 1907 (By “King s Scout.”) (HI.) The hero of Mufekuig returned to England in 1903 to take over the position of Inspector-General of Cavalry, after having been specially selected by Lord Kitchener to organise the South African Coustabularly in 1900. For the next few years Major Baden-Powell was busy at his new post, but the alert mind of the. athlete, soldier and scout noticed the unsatisfactory trend of organised sport where thousands were onlookers and only a few spectators. It may be said that from the realisation of the need for an antidote to this, in the mind of Baden-Powell the scout movement began. In 1907 he was promoted to the rank of Lieut-General in the army, and in August of the same year he held a small camp composed of boys drawn from various sources and different classes of society, in Brownsea Island, Dorsef. ' This camp was o£ a highly experimental nature, but its success led to the founding of the Boy Scout movement a year later. From then on patrols 7 sprung up al! over the country and in a few years the movement had spread to other parts of the Empire, and then out into the rest of the world. It gripped the boy-mind as no other movement for boys had Succeeded in doing, and this because the Chief himself was a boy at heart. The movement appealed at once to the “gang" spirit of boys and to their imagination. The movement was based on a law taken from the code of the knights in which there are no “musts” or “must nots.” One law, for instance, says that a Scout’s honour is to be trusted. If a boy breaks it he automatically ceases to be a scout, no matter whether he continue to wear the uniform or not. Non-Political: Non-Military. Writing in tiie Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lord Baden-Powell says: “The scope of the movement is unlimited by class, creed, colour or political distinction. The movement is non-military, nonpolitical, non-clnss and interdenominational.” “Scouting ior Boys,” the handbook of the movement published first by the Chief in 1908, breathes the spirit of the open air, and the attributes of frantiersinen, backwoodsmen, and explorers are held up as examples for scouts to emulate. By 1910 there were 123,000 scouts in the British Empire, and an enquiry by the Privy Council into the aims and methods of the movement in 1912, was followed by the granting of a royal charter of incorporation. In the same year the Chief undertook a tour of organisation uf the world. The sister movement, Girl Guiding, had come into existence in 1910, Baden-Powell being greatly assisted in founding it by bis sister. Miss Agnes Baden-Powell. Scouts took a big part in the Great War ami of 100.000 who saw active service, 10,000 gave their lives. Those under age took over the work of coast guardsmen at home, and at the close of the war the British Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George,,conveyed the country's gratitude to the movement. International Jamborees. In 1920 a great international jamboree was held in London, ana over 6000 scouts, representing 26 nations took part, it was then that Sir Robert Baden-Powell was declared by ail nations to be Chief Scout of the world, and an international council was formed. The second international jamboree was held at Copenhagen in 1924, and this time 33 nations were represented. A further great landmark in the history of the movement was the welcome home to the Prince of Wales after his world tour in 1922 by 40,000 scouts, 20,000 cubs and 2000 Rovers. The Prince and King George V. have always displayed great interest in the movement. A big Imerial jamboree was held at Wembley in 1924 m connection with the British Empire Exhibition. One of the greatest of ail jamborees was that which celebrated the coming-of-age of the movement, and held at Arrowe Park, Birkenhead, in 1929. Approximately 00.000 scouts, representing 56 different nationalities were in camp, lhe Chief, who bad been awarded a baronetcy in 1921, was elevated to the peerage on the occasion of . the jamboree and chose the title of Baron ‘ Baden-Powell of Gilwell. Gilwell Park, in Epping Forest, is the school of training for officers, and has won for itself the interest of leading education authorities from many foreign as well as British countries. A President’s Tribute. Many tributes have been paid to the worth of the boy scout movement by eminent statesmen, but few can have been greater than that of President Calvin Coolidge in an address at Washington in 1926. He emphasised the fact that the movement had a unique power for fusing together in a common citizenhood, in one generation, the different foreign elements that go to make the American nation and which would otherwise take two or three generations of schooling and legislation. Of course, the movement has sometimes been assailed by those who have not cared to enquire into it as tendinir to encourage a militaristic spirit. On this point, however. the founder of the movement is. very definite, when he savs: ‘Military training is not employed, as being contrary to the. ideals of pence anil educationally There are at present over 2.000.000 scouts in the world and approximately 1.000.000 girl guides, and ninny more millions in the populations of the various countries who have passed, through th movement. For the great ultimate ideal o the founder of scouting, ns he has expressed it himself in commenting on tne world-wide growth of the organisation, is ‘•lt is hoped that this development, which is growing day by day tuny tend materially to bring about lhe spirit esential to ensuring peace in the world—without which, as a foundation, suggestions or disarmament, arbitration, etc., can onl be futile.’ (Concluded.)