“A DANGER TODAY”

Franklin Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 118, 9 October 1936, Page 6

“A DANGER TODAY”

BADEN-POWELL’S VIEWS. WOMAN’S IMPORTANT PART. Everything is being clone for us today by modern invention, writes Lord Baden-Powell in the London “Dailv Mail.”

Things unheard of but a few short years ago are now commonplace—the radio, the cinema, air travel, motoring —they are all intended to make life easier and to bring about a higher standard of living for the average man, woman, and child.

Where does it lead us? Will the lessening of the need for individual effor-t affect the self-reliance and fortitude and wide-eyed outlook and selfsacrifice in the causae of duty that constitute useful citizens?

There is a danger today that the spirit of adventure and enterprise so essential to progress may be deadened.

We must have a sound and stable people. And the term “people” includes not merely the men hut also the women of our race.

Women have of recent years come into their own and taken their place alongside men. Moreover, they are the advisers of the present and trainers of the next generation.

Thus character is at least equally necessary for them. Character in the individual, woman as well as man, is essential to making “a sound and stable people.” Yet character cannot be taught by mass instruction to a school class. It can only be developed by education of the individual.

St Ls in this direction especially that the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movement is working to help education. We aim to prepare the young people for making the''best of their lives —for themselves and for the nation.

Self-Education. This preparation is done by selfeducation, through their own enthusiasm, in health and strength, in outdoor activities and exercises, in handicrafts, in observation and education, and in good will and understanding, through practice of self-sacrifice and good turns to others. The jamboree, or rally, held recently at Plymouth for the Scouts in the South-west counties gave a fair demonstration to those interested of what Scouting is and how it works. In Dorset, Devon and Cornwall the spirit and the tradition of Francis Drake and other old-time adventurers still -live. It is that natural spirit of manliness that we desire to evoke. Many of the boys, coming' from remote moorlands and fishing coves, had never seen much of modern civilisation.. To them cinemas and even, in one or two cases, trains had hitherto been unknown. But as Scouts they were given opportunities for practising adventure, for facing difficulties, and for roughing it with courage and fortitude much as their forefathers did. Coming together in their thousands, as they "did at Plymouth, they gained a wider appreciation of what is meant by brotherhood and good comradeship. As for the foreign Scouts, the interchange of visits with them has come to.be a very large item in our programme.

Every year Scout Troops have gone from Britain to visit their brother Scouts in other countries, and this has been going on in ever-increasing numbers. The average of recent years has amounted to some 8000 boys, in small detachments, to most of the countries of Europe.

The idea has been responded to by the foreign Scouts in their turn, who have taken to visiting their British brother Scouts similarly in considerable numbers. . One thing we need is the patriotic help of more men and more women to take in hand the masses of young people anxious to become Scouts and Guides.