THE BOY SCOUTS

Northern Advocate, 17 August 1933, Page 4

THE BOY SCOUTS

If attendance at annual meetings, parades and other functions in connection with the Boy Scouts may he taken as a criterion the people of Whaugarei take very little interest in the Scout movement. This is a pity, it is jnot to the credit of the community. The fact that a World Jamboree has just been held at Godollo, in Hungary, has moved the press in, almost all lands to comment upon the great role which tlie Scouts are playing in international relationships. The “Sydney Morning Herald” truly asked what imaginative mind could contemplate the spectacle of the jamboree and remain unimpressed. Here, it was pointed out, was one of the youngest (youngest in every sense) of the many attempts since Arthur’s time to emulate That fair order of the Table Round, A glorious company, the (lower of men; To serve as model for the mighty world, And be the fair beginning of a lime.

As Britons, we cannot hut feel a natural interest in the part played by the Empire as a whole,

and in its geographical divisions, I in this gathering of the youth of; thirty-seven nations. Are not the feelings of the founder, himself a Briton, to be envied? On soil which so lately, by the accident of war, was hostile territory, the Scouts appeared at the jamboree as true ambassadors of j peace. For this, more than any- j tiling else, the Boy Scout movement stands. Notwithstanding a fact so obvious, there are those wlio assail the movement with gross misrepresentation. Some of them seem to dislike it because it has a uniform. As the “Morning Herald” says, they might just as reasonably condemn the Salvation Army as a militaristic body. Their real objection is to discipline and authority in other hands, and for other objects, than their own. Had they the power, they would replace the whole scheme with a Sovetised despotism to which the mild and fraternal rule of the scoutmaster can in no way be compared. The truth is that, in the midst of a world which of late has burst forth into a crazy variety of new uniforms, mostly unauthorised and menacing. the Boy Scouts are among It he few whose colours are entirejly pacific and helpful in meaning land intent. The shirt has become jin many lands a symbol of crushing restriction, almost a symbol of war. Shirts, red, black, brown, green, and blue, are all, in some degree, intentionally provocative. Most of them stand for that extreme and unreasoning form of national exclusiveness which has done so much to bring the world into sore straits. The quiet garb of the Scouts is. like their creed, void of offence to all men save those in whom ill-will creates universal grievances. Those few enthusiasts who,' not so many years ago, made their modest start, “builded better than they knew.” They can scarcely have foreseen the ultimate destiny of an organisation still spreading, which does splendid service, both at home and abroad, and which has the paramount, advantage that its influence is chiefly felt among those with whom will lie the future of the human race. Is it too much to suggest that the. people of Whangarei arouse themselves to the need for practical interest in the local Beont companies? Men and women are solf-saerifleingly giving time and energy to the work of scoutmasters, and the least that can he done to help them is to manifest interest in them and the. hoys and girls (for what is said of the Scouts may he said of the Guides) to whom they devote themselves.