VITAL PART TO PLAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 11

VITAL PART TO PLAY

GUIDES AND SCOUTS ADDRESS BY LADY NEWALL "It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of these twin movements, the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, for they have a vital part to play in the reconstruction of the world which must follow victory,' said Her Excellency Lady Newall, speaking as Dominion president of the Girl Guides Association, at the annual meeting of the Wellington Provincial Girl Guides. "We are fighting this war for the future of mankind, fighting to ensure that succeeding generations shall enjoy that freedom of thought and action without which the whole English-speaking world knows that life would not he worth living,"

Constant care must be taken to see that the children of to-day were brought up to recognise the value of ireedom and, since true freedom demanded self-discipline, they must be given a sense of responsibility to the community as a whole, if democracy was to succeed. However hard pressed people might be in the struggle, they must never forget the young boys and girls who had to win the peace for Christian democracy when the war had been won against pagan tyranny. "We must somehow help them to withstand the constant battering of the waves of propaganda and corruption which will inevitably surge from the strongholds of German youth thirsting for revenge," Lady Newall went on. "If we do not prepare our children and people fully to play their part, our victory will be a greater failure than that of 1918, and we shall be to blame." Every child in New Zealand should be a scout, guide, wolf cub or brownie, and that ideal must be the association's aim. Lady Newall said she knew the difficulty there was to find leaders for the two movements, for so many young men and women were serving their country in the forces and with various other forms of war service. She appealed to those who, for different reasons, were unable to do war jobs, to serve New Zealand by helping with the scout and guide movements. Parents, too, could help, by encouraging their children to join. Scouting, guiding and school education went hand in hand in the making of good citizens, and Lady Newall said she would ask all schools which had not already done so seriously to consider the formation of the various groups within the two movements. She was certain that this would develop the qualities of .self-reliance, responsibility and service so essential to the next generation.