SCOUT NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 22750, 28 November 1935, Page 14

SCOUT NOTES

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PATHFINDER.

(By Pathfinder.) The final meeting this year of Scouters will be held on Thursday, December 5. As the Scout Gilwell Camp at Dunedin has not been cancelled, three Invercargill scoutmasters are attending while one cubmaster will be going to the Cub Gilwell at Timaru. Owing to the time of these camps, from Christmas to New Year, many others who would like to find it impossible to attend them. Scouters outside the city who want any information about these camps should write to the District Commissioner immediately. Cub Notes. The North Invercargill Pack is going ahead steadily. Although rather small in numbers they are very keen and hold a good proportion of first stars while some more second stars should be gained very shortly. A Totem Pole and a Union Jack are the latest acquisitions of the Rawhiti (East Invercargill) Pack. Quite a few ribbons adorn the Totem now and more are being added for proficiency badges gained. IS SCOUTING MILITARY? A REPLY. “Militarism: the prevalence of the military sentiment and ideals among a people; the tendency to regard military efficiency as the paramount interest of the State.”—(Oxford English ary)A few extracts from the Chief Scout s I own writings will best serve to state his attitude towards militarism, and the hope he has that in the Scout Movement we are moving towards a better world, where good will and trust will replace fear and suspicion. “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 good will and co-operation. (Scouting for Boys, p. 305, 306). “There is no military meaning attached to Scouting. Peace scouting comprises the attributes of colonial frontiersmen 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. 325, 326). (To be continued.)