YOUTH MOVEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21515, 12 June 1933, Page 11

YOUTH MOVEMENT

guides and scouts ANNUAL CHURCH PARADE INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS LORD 7 BLEDISLOE'S ADDRESS The annual church parade of the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts in Auckland took place at the Town Hall yesterday afternoon. ¥he Governor-Gen-eral, Lord Bledisloe, and Lady Blcdisloe were present. The parade was most efficiently organised, and served to show the large and growing place filled in the community by these organisations and particularly by the Girl Guides. About 1000 Guides and between 400 and 500 scouts occupied nearly all the floor space of the hall, while among the visitors that crowded the galleries were some hundreds of the younger cubs and brownies. The metropolitan commissioner of the grouts, Mr. W. J. Holdsworth, presided. while at the head of the guides were Mrs. 1?. M. Tolhurst, chairwoman of the Dominion executive, acting in place of Mrs. "NY. R. Wilson, chief commissioner for the Dominion, Mrs. R. J. Coates, provincial commissioner, and Miss M. Smeeton, divisional commissioner. Guide commissioners and members of the executive committee, scout commissioners and representatives of the ChuxPhes also occupied seats on the platforiix. Procession of Colours There were two most impressive features, of the parade. One was the marching in and final retirement of the guard of honour, composed of bearers of the colours of every troop represented. In procession they bore their standards to the choir seats below the organ, And then at the signal given by the music moved in to the centrej leaving their flags standing displayed. The. other memorable moment came when the/ guides and scouts with right hands upraised, solemnly renewed the sacred promise of their order. The prayers and hymns were appropriate and the lesson was read by the metropolitan commissioner. As an introduction to his address on the international aspect of guiding and scouting, Lord Bledisloe told of the interesting enterprise of a troop of Christchurch Rover Scouts. With the ultimata object of linking up Rover Scouts throughout New Zealand, Australia and Canada, the North Beach Rover Scout Crew commenced on June 1 wireless transmissions from a station operated by its own radio society. It had successfully interchanged felicitations with New Plymouth. That not only showed, said His Excellency, the resourcefulness, inventiveness and enterprise among the older brothers of the Scout movement, but in this respect New Zealand scouts Avere pointing ' the way to the rest of the world. Two Great Conferences His Excellency said he wished to point the way to further inquiry on their part into those difficult international questions which at the present critical moment in the world's history were harassing the statesmen of the nations of the world. Eyes were concentrated at the moment upon two great world- conferences, one of which had been assembled for several weeks at Geneva and the other and more important was about to assemble in London. The first had been called to check physical warfare and the second to check the economic warfare which was driving nations steadily into bank- • ruptcy and beggary. "Let our earnest . prayers go up at this critical moment in the world's history for the success of these two great international conferences," said His Excellency. Nations might not mean to fight, but if they had the men trained, the warships, the guns, the bomb-dropping aeroplanes, the submarines and the poison gas. war was sooner or later inevitable. The Geneva Conference was attempting, if possible, to put a stop to all warfare and preparations for war. The following day there would begin in London the conference intended to stop the present disastrous commercial and financial war being waged between nations. It had been initiated by British statesmen and would be opened by the King. Causes of Unemployment Industry, trade and finance were national no longer, but were international. There were thousands in Auckland suffering from unemployment through no fault of their own, but because there was not enough money coming into the country to pay them. That money normally came in to pay for the primary products of New Zealand, but Britain's factory trade had fallen off and many had not the money with which to pay for the Dominion's products. Britain's trade had fallen off, no doubt partly on account of war debts and high taxation, but also largely owing to restrictions imposed by other countries on the importation of British goods, and to the hoarding of gold. Without professing to be at war the nations' of the world to-day, through exclusive nationalism and regardless of their dependence one upon the other, had been developing an intense trade warfare and cutting their own throats. Now gatherings sftch as the world jamboree of 1929, when Scouts of 42 different nations lived together, produced • an atmosphere in which war was impossible. That signified that we all belonged to one great human family, whatever might be our colour or race or our station in life. "If wo are narrow in our outlook oil mankind at large," said His Excellency, "we are failing in the greatest of all loyalties, our loyalty to God. who, after all, is Father of all, and whose Fatherhood necessarily implies our brotherhood and sisterhood with people of all nations of the world. Lack of mutual knowledge is the great source of strife in the world. The great need of the;world to-day is the constant and friendly intercourse of nations. This spacious comradeship comes well within the scope of your Scout and Guide law." The Delights of Nature Speaking.of what the children had in eommoii with others, His Excellency said: "You have God's beautiful nature with all its spacious grandeur and beauty, freedom and inspiration, its trees, its flowers, its wild life, its beautiful sunsets, its breaking waves, its besprinkled firmament. A love of nature is an unconscious love of God, who provided for us all without distinction of class, race or people its wondrous gifts eo full of harmony and of peace. I venture to .suggest to you that if you wish to eiirich your sense of comradeship, .which is so important in the world today, throw yourselves, as you have opportunity, into the expansive delights of God's natural gifts. "I have a most profound belief in tlie power for good of your two great movements," concluded His Excellency, "and 1 most sincerely hope that now that the Scouts in particular have been re-established on . a sounder footing, that the two great movements will embrace all' that is healthy and patriotic throughout the whole of this country, and will make their indelible mark for good in the interests of the future of this country and this Empire. God bless you all.'J It was announced that the collection taken' up at the gathering would be demoted to the Governor-General's winter Jfelief fund. I