BOY SCOUT IDEALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18380, 21 April 1923, Page 12

BOY SCOUT IDEALS.

HIGH STANDARD SET,

ALL' CLASSES MINGLE, COMMISSIONER'S FINE SPEECH. " Our movement has a code of such a high character that no boy or man is asked to keep it, but merely to do his best to keep it," said Sir Alfred D. Pickford, Boy Scout Commissioner for Overseas, to the Royal Colonial Institute in Sydney. The institute entertained Sir Alfred at lunch at the Hotel Australia. Sir Alfred, looking very much like a big scout, clad as he was in shorts and khaki jumper, and with his silver wolf suspended round his neck, was enthusiastically received as he rose to reply to the toast of his health, with his monocle which he cherishes as somewhat of a choice joke against himself, fast In his loft eye. He referred in flattering terms to the institute, which, he said, had stood four-square against the attacks of the "Little Englanders," who wanted to lop off all the other parts of the Empire and leave Britain on her own. "Especially during the war," he said, "we owed the institute a special debt for that." # "

"There are many sides to the Boy Scout movement," Sir Alfred went on. "The outstanding point about it is that it is a voluntary movement, inasmuch as nobody enters it or stays there from compulsion. Yet there are 2,000,000 scouts scattered over 49 nations of the world, counting the British nation as one." Making War Impossible. Anybody, he said, who wore the badge of the Boy Scouts could travel from end to end of the Continent of Europe and be sure that somebody would come up and ask if he could be of any use, for. it would be found everywhere that there were those who were bound by the same laws of brotherhood. The same thing applied to the Girl Guide movement. The movement had a code of such a high character that no boy or man was asked to keep it, but merely to do his best to keep it. The code raised the movement to one of such a character that if sufficient support were given to it it would do in the future much to make war impossible. The movement was a non-class one. It was simply splendid to see the way in which men and boys of all classes brought about an atmosphere in which class differences were no bar to friendship, and brought no bitterness or differences. "This was very noticeable in the scout officers'' training camp in Epping Forest," he said. "There men became boys again for 12 days, no matter what their class or age. There were men there of every class and manner of thought, living cheek by jowl in what to many of them must have been very ; uncomfortable circumstances. '~ -/ "In one class there were undergraduates from Oxford and miners who were on strike, working in the same cause." Magnificent War Record. The scout movement, the commissioner continued, was a non-military one, but not anti-military, as the war record showed. There were 100,000 Boy Scouts known to have gone to the war,. and 10,000 were killed. Among their decorations they won 12 Victoria Crosses. The movement aimed at making better citizens. There was no truth in the statement that it was instilling a subtle, militaristic poison into the minds of youth. % - It was non-sectarian, but not irreligious. The policy of the movement laid it down that, while a boy was ; expected to belong to some denomination, the scout-master was not allowed to interfere with his religion, but, on the contrary, was expected to encourage mm in the practice of it. „, , j The movement was a well-balanced one from the educational standpoint, not seeking to supplant the boys' parents, their religion, nor, their teachers, but to supplement them. It looked after the boys' physical, mental, and moral make--1 The Imperial Rally.

Referring to the Imperial rally, which will take place in London next year, Sir Alfred hoped that Australia would send a worthy contingent. He suggested from 500 to 1000 boys. ;- •;; u "■ i*. On the question of migration, he felt that the lads at Home who were willing to work did well in coming to this country. It was realised that the question was one of great importance, but he was. afraid that the Boy Scout movement would not contribute as much toward it as some others, for the reason that there was a crowing demand on the part of employers at Home for boys who had been in the movement. Nevertheless, the movement would do the best if could in this regard. There were 2,000,000 scouts jn the world. .Four hundred and fifty thousand of these were in the crowded little island of Britain, and only 20,000 in all Australia. He concluded with an appeal^ to the people of this country to increase the numbers .of scouts here. .