SCOUT NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 21429, 25 June 1931, Page 8

SCOUT NOTES

, (By “Pathfinder.”) A meeting of the Scouters’ Cluo was held last- evening and a report will be published next week. All troops have settled down again to normal routine, very much invigorated by the demonstration on the King’s Birthday and by the preliminary practices. ] North Invercargill troop has a cub pack under way and application is being made for registration. I heard recently of a very fine example of the value of scouting which happened a little while back at a school in Southland. A schoolboy broke his arm, but there was so little pain and discomfort that it was very doubtful whether the arm was actually broken or not. Ono of the teachers, who is also a scoutmaster, knew how to make the necessary test and definitely ascertained what was wrong. He procured splints and improvised bandages, and sent the boy to hospital. Shortly afterwards the matron rang up complimenting the authorities on the manner in which the arm had been bandaged, remarking that it was the best amateur work that had come under her observation. Scouting is truly “worth while."

IS SCOUTING MILITARY?—A REPLY. “To seek peace and pursue it is the first and highest duty, both of this generation and those that are yet to come.” Scouting believes in patriotism, but it is only through an understanding, appreciation and love of one’s own country that one can hope to come to an understanding and appreciation of other countries as well. The love of a well-ordered home begets a well-ordered community, the love of a wellordered community begets a well-ordered country, the love of a well-ordered country begets a well-ordered world. “Scouting was started long before the Great War, at a time when there seemed to be a need for it in our nation. But the need has become ten times greater since the war. . . More than ever before there is needed a definite training in character for our future men, on whose shoulders will rest the responsibility for seeing the old country safely out of the whirlpool or of letting it become sucked in. If before the war we, in the Scouts, had a sporting chance of being helpful .to the country, to-day that chance has become a pressing national duty. “The War, moreover, was a disgrace to our boasted civilization and to Christianity. If we have profited by the lesson and really mean to avoid its repetition it is up to us to pursue a definite training of the young mind in peaceful goodwill and cooperation.”—(Scouting for Boys, p. 307.) “There is no military meaning attached to Scouting. Peace Scouting comprises the attributes of colonial frontiers-men in the way of resourcefulness and self-reliance and the many other qualities which make them men among men. There is no intention of making the lads into soldiers or of teaching them bloodthirstiness . . . “Every man who has any heart in him is anti-war. The Boy Scout's Training is definitely for peace.”—(Scouting for Boys, p. 326.)

“In giving a simple system of drill for the Boy Scouts, I wish it to be understood that it is merely in order to enable Scoutmasters to move their troops and patrols in good order for parade purposes, and not as an exercise for frequent practice with the boys when other occupations are possible. “When I see a troop drill well, but fail to follow a trail or cook its own food, I recognize that the Scoutmaster is not good as such. The indifferent or unimaginative officer always falls back upon drill as his one resource.” —(Scouting for Boys, p. 217.) These are the Chief Scout's considered opinions on the question of militarism. The All-India Camp at the World Jamboree embraced seven different religions and nine different races.

(To Be