SCOUT MOVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 43, 20 February 1942, Page 7

SCOUT MOVEMENT

VALUE TO THE EMPIRE

VITAL INFLUENCE ON FUTURE

The important part that scouting can play in building a better Etn-

pire and a better world was emphasised by his Excellency the Gov-ernor-General, Sir Cyril Newall,

Dominion Chief Scout, in an address last night. "It is my conviction that the twin movements, Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, if they are given the necessary encouragement and support, will play a vital part in securing the future happiness of mankind, a part .which no other organisation is so well fitted to

perform," said his Excellency.

"We are engaged in a life and death struggle against an enemy whose ambition it is to take away from us that freedom without which life for us would be intolerable," he continued. "We are determined that our victory shall lay the foundation stone of a new and better world. The most that we who are grown-up today can hope to do is to ensure that that stone is well and truly laid. It will be the task of those who follow us to build upon it. • .

"One of our chief concerns must therefore be that the children of today are trained to carry out this task; that they are trained to appreciate the glorious heritage which has been won for them by pain and sacrifice through countless generations, and to recognise the responsibilities which possession of that heritage entails. If they are not so trained our victory will be a greater failure than that of 1918. It is towards this training that scouting can do so much.

"If Hitler had not realised the tremendous power which the upbringing of the youth of any country can be made to wield. Germany would not be the menace to civilisation which she is today. He has created a nation of slaves, by preaching paganism to the children and by teaching them lies. He has enlisted their honourable instincts j of self-sacrifice and devotion to serve his material ends. He has deliberately deprived them of the elements of justice. He has raised up false gods for' them to worship. He has given them ideals for which hundreds of thousands of them are prepared to sacrifice their lives without hesitation, although those ideals are the very negation of all that we hold sacred. THE NOBLEST INSTINCTS. ! "How much more can we do if we take as much trouble as he has done in the education of our children. For we would inspire them, not as he has I done with evil, but with good. We would enlist their nqblest instincts for the service of civilisation and Christianity. . :

"The boy scout system stands ready to help in this high aim. The lesson which scouting teaches is the very lesson which we most want our children to learn. Freedom is our aim, freedom of thought and freedom of action. But freedom alone is not enough. If it is not disciplined by the realisation of our responsibilities to the community as a whole, it quickly degenerates into licence and decadence. To be worth while that discipline must not be imposed by a dictator—it must be selfimposed. To cultivate that self-disci-pline we must teach our children that they have a duty to their neighbours That is one of the elementary principles of Christianity. It is the ideal on which scouting has been built—the ideal of responsibility and service."