SCOUTS OF THE EMPIRE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 September 1924, Page 13

SCOUTS OF THE EMPIRE.

INSPIRING SCENES AT WEMBLEY. ROUND THE CAMP EIRE. (Sydney Morning Herald.)' LONDON, Aug. 7. The Prince of Wales, Chief Scout of Wqles, -went- into camp on the Wembley fields last -week-end with twelve thousand, fellow-Scouts from all parts of the Empire. He attended the afternoon display in the Stadium on Saturday. He went on to the camp-fire concert, and .joined the Aberdeen contingent in the dancing of a reel. He slept in a tent, rose at reveille, made a thorough inspection of the camp, receiving, amongst other things, the present of a Manx kitten, and then he attended the great service held in the Stadium on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening the Prince was “piped” to the camp fire shortly before 9 o’clock by Scout pipers and drummers playing"™ The Highland Laddie.” He wore Sc-out uniform, but this was hidden by a camp-fire robe —a garment woven of. soft camel’s hair and decorated with the head and claws of a tiger embroidered in silk. On the highest ground of the encampment -was built the great camp fire, square at the base, with huge logs piled to an apex. For ah hour before the Prince was due the campers were seen threading their way, in many roughly ' marching throngs, in and out of the forest of bell tents. Each moving column was an integral part of one of the five sectional camps—blue, purple, yellow-, green or red in colour. Every Scout bore about him in some form or other his distinguishing colour. Generally they wore coloured headgear or coloured scarves, the effect being extraordinarily picturesque as they came trooping over the hilly ground. The multitude of boys were arranged in everwidening circles; each section keeping to its colour, around a raised, roughlysawn wooden platform by the gangway, on which were placed three seats. “Alert!” cried the Camp Commandant, and the 1000 boys of the Welsh troops sang “God Bless the Prince of Wales.” “Squat.’” shouted the Camp Commandant, and dowm went the .12,000 lads on tlieir ground sheets. TRIBUTE TO THE CHIEF SCOUT.. When the yells and songs of the programme had nearly come to an end, there crept round the immense circle the Camp Chief, wrapped jn a highlycoloured Red Indian blanket showing vividly in the light of the blazing log fire. He whispered: UThe Prince is going to dance a Scots’ reel! Keep him to it. Scouts!” v . A band of pipejs and.two drummers stepped up close to the fire and started to play “Mrs MacLeod of Rassay.” A moment later eight sets of lcilted Scots’ Scouts stepped in the circle. With them was the Prince, who, laughingly throwing off his robe and hanging it over the back of his throne, started in with the delighted dancers. Hatiess, the Prince danced and laughed and shouted. From all segments of thecircle came excited cries. After ten minutes’ dancing the Prince - stepped ''back again on to the rough platform. But he did not sit down, and the Chief Scout, holding up a hand, silenced the storm of cheering. In a dead silence the Prince began to speak “I am too much out of breath to make a speech,” he said; “out of breath with dancing the reel! But I do w r ant to say that this is the'largest gathering of Scouts there has ever been. Scouts from all over tlie world, and Scouts from the Home , Country. It is to the Chief Scout that we owe the inception of this great movement. Now I want you to give the Chief Scout three'cheers. Three of the very best cheers. Scouts! Let it go!” And go it did! Reveille was sounded at.lialf-past 5. After breakfast in his tent, the Prince of Wales made a thorough visitation of the camp, including the canteens and the hospital ward. A pleasant incident lyas provided by* the 4t,h Neasden troop, which consists entirely of golf caddies. They made the chair on which the Prince sat at the camp fire, chopping down a tree for the purpose, and adorning the chair with the three feathers of Wales and the inscription in the Cree tongue: “To the Chief Morning Star” (w r hich is the Prince’s title in that North Indian tribe). The chair will go to the permanent trailing camp of the Boy Scouts at Gilwell Park.

SUNDAY SERVICE. Prayers in the Stadium on Sunday morning provided what will probably be the greatest gathering of the Jamboree. For an hour and a half the.boys marched into the arena until half of it was filled by a multitude. In the centre of it was a broad aisle across the grass, leading to a high platform in the gallery. While the Scouts sang “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven,” an imposing procession entered —first a hundred great banners of the various parts of the Empire, then the Prince of Wales, carrying his . stave, the high officers of the movement, and finally the Archbishop of York, who wore his scarlet Convocation robe, and was preceded by his pastoral cross and followed by two small Scouts acting as train-bearers. The service was done with the aid of loud-speakers, and surprisingly loud and clear they were. “This wonderful gathering,” said the Archbishop of York, in the course of his address, “is more than a great rally; it is a great call. The Prince will speak it in the name of your country. The Chief Scout will speak it in the name of the great movement which he conceived, and which he has made and leads: I have tried to speak it in the name of God. It is a call to you to give your young lives with all the future before them to the service of God, and, for His sake, of the Empire which He has given us on trust.”

PRINCE’S ADDRESS. The Prince of Wales, addressing the boys through the loud-speaker, said: “Scouts, I am proud to be present on this unique occasion, when Scouts are gathered from all parts of the Empire. It is an invigorating experience, which must put new life into us all. This Exhibition gives you some idea of the boundless possibilities of the British Empire. llow these possibilities will be developed depends upon the future men of the Empire. You are the future Empire men, and it is up to you to carry out your Scout law and be prepared for these great possibilities, which at the same time will offer you a great opportunity.. The best way to prepare yourselves is to go on with your Scouting, and gain all you can in

•health and strength, both of body and mind. , . ‘‘l ask the overseas Scouts to make the most' of the opportunities -which their visit provides, and to learn all they can of the character and institutions of the Old Country.' Those of the Old Country will, ■I - know, make fast friends with their brothers from overseas, and will carry on the principles of good-will and helpfulness, and reproduce that spirit of comradeship which was such; a feature of the Great War. The Empire was like a bundle of sticks, any one of which niight be broken, but which, when they were tied together, could not be broken. The bond which , bound the Empire together was the splendid spirit of loyalty to the King and one another, which in all my journeys overseas I have found to be a great sustaining force. You are a great brotherhood of Scouts of the Empire. If you go forward in the spirit, that has brought you here to-day, you will not only find many of the difficulties of your- life less formidable than they appear, but, what is more important, you .will be setting an example in unselfishness that cannot fail to be a .blessing to the community in y-hicli you. reside and the. Empire as a whole., I wish you . the best of luck in the future.” Loud cheers rose from the Scouts in the arena, and they were.;tak.en up by the people in .the .galleries. , : THE SCOUT PROMISE. Sir R. Baden-Powell then addressed the boys. He said: “You have heard the call of the Church and the call of your future King. Those calls will live in your, minds as Scouts and future men of th,e Empire. I ask you to pause for a minute, flags' lowered and heads bent, and think "of your Scout .promise. ‘I promise, on my honour to ’do; my best; to do my duty to God and the King; to obey the Scout law; and to help other people at all times. * “I want you all to go forth from this place eager to . serve God and the King and your fellow-men. Those who will do that, stand up and tell me.” In an instant every boy was on his feet, and thousands of. hands were raised aloft as they joined in a great cry, “1 will.” With a Benediction, pronounced by the Archbishop the service ended. The Scouts crowded round the Prince, and loudly cheered him as he left the Stadium to drive home to London. The boys marched back to camp to the merry tune of “ Colonel Bogey. ’