The Chief Scout Jalk

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

The Chief Scout Jalk

A SCOUT’S EQUIPMENT. (By Lt.-Gen. Lord Baden Powell of Gilwell.) This is the season of Scout Rallies in the Old Country, and . during the next ■month or two I shall be .seeing a lot of Scouts in different parts of the country —and, when I say Scouts, of course I mean Rovers and Cubs as well. North, South, East and West of Great Britain, Scouts are all looking much alike, with their cheery if ugly faces, bare knees, and broad grips. I have just seen a splendid lot of 10.000 in a Northern country; at Whit.suntidc I saw the Scouts of the West; in June I shall see those of some of the Eastern counties, and also the Scouts of London at the Crystal Palace, where our first Scout Rally was held 23 years ago. I wonder which will be the smartest and most efficient lot of all. You may think that I can’t tell much about you from one look at a big rally, but I can find .out more than you think, perhaps. For instance, by the .badges you have won I can tell pretty well what you.r tastes, ’hobbies, and talents are. That is one thing I could not know if you were not in 'uniform. By the correct wearing of your uniform and the smartness of turn-out of each individual scout I can tell whether or not you take a pride in yourself, your patrol, you.r ■troop and your group.

BOND OF BROTHERHOOD. ’ The scout unifo.rm--tlie .same everywhere—now makes a real bond of brotherhood among boys all the world over. Qpo slovenly Scout, inaccurately dressed, may let down the whole ■movement in tlie eyes of those watching a rally. Show me such a fellow, and I can'show you one who has never grasped the true scouting spirit, and who takes no pride in his membership of our great brother.h'ood. ■

Gue .of the most important items in the turn-out of a Scout is ’his staff, and it is a 'thing that I always look out for. Without it a scout is only half equipped for fiis work in the world. ' Personally, I have found the staff an invaluable help when traversing mountains or 'boulder-strewn country,,, and especially in night work in forest or bush. It is also a comforter in the presence of snakes or wild animals, and a means of defence against hostilities.

In India one of the most formidable wfeapons used is lathi, which is merely a

stout wooden staff, for which the natives have certain exercises which make it a very formidable weapon in the hands of a skilled quarter-staff player. In the same way the scout staff can be used as a very valuable weapon of defence on occasion. MANX USES. Scouts also use their staves for stretchers to carry injured people, or their own gear, also for holding back crowds (one use for them at a rally), for making flag staffs, bridges, travois, tent poles, feeling their way in the dark, as leaping poles, measuring sticks, and a dozen other things.- Then if you carve upon your staff various signs representing your own personal achievemepte, the staff gradually becomes a record as well as your treasured companion carved and illuminated to suit your individual taste. I have seen many such staves, and I know that even if they .do not, on occasion, save you.r life, they will almost certainly prolong your scout life, for with your scouting history thus recorded you will want to go on adding to it, and even when you are old, and think you ought to be giving up scouting, you will keep that (Staff as a treasured memento of the best days of your life. Not that Scouts'ever :do grow old. '