BADEN POWELL GIRL GUIDES VOLUNTARY AID PATROLS.

White Ribbon, Volume 20, Issue 236, 18 February 1915, Page 13

BADEN POWELL GIRL GUIDES VOLUNTARY AID PATROLS.

In the midst of preparations for the front, l)r W. Ramsay Smith (M l)., D.Sc. F.R.S. (Kdin.), Permanent Head of the Department of Public Health of South Australia; LtColonel and Principal Medical Officer C.M.F., Fourth Military Ihstric t; and Officer Commanding Fir-t Australian (ieneral Hospital, Australian Imperial Force) found time to write the following letter: Belair, October, 1014. Dear Lady Symon, I think the most useful tinn\ if not the happiest time also, of my life, was when I was teaching girls; and I am grateful to you for giving me an opportunity of saying a word or two to your Girl Guides. The following “Pledge of Good Fortune” by a too-little-known writer might be their Confession of Faith and Practice: 1. 1 promise to treat myself as an individual; to seek the good fortune of strength and beauty and accomplishments and goodness; to place human considerations be tore materi al considerations; to decline all profit gained at the expense of men and women and children; to work only for human wealth, i.e., human well-being. 2. 1 promise to treat others as individuals; to help them in their quest of personal good fortune; to put no obstacles in their way; to remove all obstacles that J can ; to treat their efforts after perfection seriously and sympathetically; to avoid personal ridicule and disparagement ; to cultivate a universal comradeship. 3. I promise to further social welfare; to promote the idea that prosperity consists essentially in persons and only incidentally in things; to be true to this faith in public and in private, in work and in play; to help, so far as I can, the freedom of non-interference and of opportuni-

ty; to >eek in all social intercourse the seriousness and beauty of a high purpose. There is just a word or two 1 should like to add on my own, that however trivial our life may seem, and however insignificant our deeds of service may appear, yet we shall find, if only we live in faith, that when the time comes for some difficult duty or serious sacrifice, our whole life appears to have been a necessary preparation for iusr that one thing. And again while we think—while the youngest of u> think the long, long thoughts of youth, with our minds fixed on our possible grandchildren or great-grand* hildren, our real concern is ju-st the next little bit of duty in the day’s work, whatever it may be—saying “Good dog,” or smiling a welcome to a little child. With every good wish to your girls, 1 am. yours faithfully, (Sgd.) W. RAMSAY SMITH. To Lady Symon, “Selma,” Fitzroy.