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So rapid was the rise of the Scout Movement that some people wondered if it might not prove to be a mushroom growth; events were to prove that the shoot came from an acorn. The greatest surprise was that the idea took root in other countries almost simultaneously with Great Britain. Scouting for Boys was, as we have seen, quickly translated into other languages, and in the spring of 1909 when B.-P. went to South America for a holiday he was not only seen off at Southampton by Boy Scouts, but others greeted him at Buenos Aires, and within a short time Chile formed an Association.
We have seen that the beginnings of an organization were appearing during 1909; in the following year ---when B.-P. resigned from the Army--- this began to assume the form which it has retained. B.-P.'s principle of 'give responsibility' was applied. The general direction of the Movement was in the hands of an Executive Committee with B.-P. as chairman and Sir Herbert Plumer as vice-chairman; amongst the members were some whose names will always be closely associated with the budding up of the Movement --- Sir Edmond Elles, Mr. C. C. Branch, Colonel Ulick de Burgh, Mr. P. W. Everett and Mr. H. Geoffrey Elwes. County Scout Councils with County Commissioners constituted the next link in the chain; District Commissioners with Local Associations were the link between County and Scoutmaster. Throughout, the aim was to leave the Scoutmaster as free as possible to do his work on the general lines suggested in Scouting for Boys. Such a loose scheme has its dangers; everything depends on the quality of the Scoutmaster; his initiative as well as that of the boys is being developed; he cannot as a convenient resource fall back upon a drill-book, for Scouting has no such manual. B.-P. was fully alive to these dangers, but he never swerved from his belief that the risks and occasional failures were- more than compensated by the gains in character-values.
Something must be said of his attitude towards drill. His strong objections to drill as a method of boy-training were based on his army experience. Here for instance is a typical note:
In the Army the well-meaning boys who came to us as recruits had been taught their three R's in the day schools, but they had no idea of having responsibility thrust upon them, of having to tackle difficulties or dangers, of having to shift for themselves, and having to dare from a sense of duty.
These things and the many other attributes of good soldiers, which may be summed up in the word character, had all to be instilled into them before one could consider them as fit for drill and military smartness. These are, in reality, only the final polish, and not, as many seem to think, the first step in making a fighting man.
The Boers were never drilled, yet they made very good fighters, and stood up to our drilled troops through a campaign of over two years.
Why was this? Because they had all the proper ground-work of character for the work --- they were self-reliant and resourceful, practised at using to the best advantage their courage, common sense, and cunning (the three C's that go to make good soldiers). Those men only needed the final polish of drill and a little stronger discipline to make the very best of soldiers.
That is the sequence of training that is wanted. If you apply it the reverse way, you get the veneer. You must, as an essential, first have character established as your ground-work.
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In the same way he argued that drill had little or no value in the training of boys as citizens; so strongly worded indeed were some of his attacks on drill that one might suspect some deep-seated 'complex'! Actually his regimental record shows that his men were as correct in the necessary drill as other soldiers; he saw the various elements which go to provide a full training in their right proportions, and in his opinion the place of drill was a minor one.
He summed up his views in Scouting for Boys:
I am continually being asked by officers --- not by the boys --- to introduce more drill into the training of Boy Scouts; but although, after an experience of thirty-four years of it, I recognize the disciplinary value of drill, I also see very clearly its evils. Briefly they are these:
(1) Military drill gives a feeble, unimaginative officer a something with which to occupy his boys. He does not consider whether it appeals to them or really does them good. It saves him a world of trouble.
(2) Military drill tends to destroy individuality, whereas we want, in the Scouts, to develop individual character; and when once drill has been learned it bores a boy who is longing to be tearing about on some enterprise or other; it blunts his keenness. Our aim is to make young backwoodsmen of the boys, not imitation soldiers.
Just as some found his attitude towards drill peculiar, so others were surprised at his opinions on the subject of physical training. In 1908 most people thought of health-training as chiefly a matter of physical jerks of the Army type. Here again B.-P. was ahead of his day. He felt that it was dangerous for the untrained Scoutmaster to put his boys through a course of regular physical exercises as, through ignorance of boy and adolescent physiology, permanent harm might be done. So too he frequently warned Scoutmasters against straining the boys by feats of endurance --- such as long treks or hikes or bicycle rides. His method was, first to teach six very simple exercises to be done daily; secondly to encourage physical development by games in the Troop (out of doors as far as possible); thirdly to promote fitness by camping, hiking, climbing and other 'natural' means (as opposed to 'artificial' jerks and drill); and fourthly to teach the boy simple health practices (cleaning teeth, the daily shower or rub down, etc.) and impress upon him his personal responsibility for his own health.
Once the framework of an organization was set up B.-P. left it to function without constant interference; he himself concentrated on gaining support for the Movement by public lectures usually combined with inspections of local Scout Troops, and on winning the active interest of any likely men of influence as Commissioners or Scoutmasters. As an example of his activity the following programme of visits during February and March 1910 may be given:
February. 2nd, Harrogate. 5th, S.E. London. 15th, Ipswich. 19th, Oxford. 26th, Coventry. 28th, Plymouth.
March. 1st, Exeter. 2nd, Torquay. 5th, Shropshire. 7th, Cardiff. 8th, Swansea. 9th, Devizes. 14th, Belfast. 15th, Dublin. 16th, Cork. 19th, Edinburgh. 21st, Perth. 22nd, Aberdeen. 23rd, Hawick.
His visits to Troops were never formal inspections; they kept him in touch with the needs of both boys and leaders, and he was always quick to recognize and praise any new idea or experiment even if it seemed trifling. He wanted no stereotyped form of training which would reduce Scouting to text-book repetitions; least of all did he claim a monopoly of ideas; his readiness to consider suggestions from all sources was indeed one of his notable characteristics.
Visits were not limited to the United Kingdom, for interest in the Movement was rapidly spreading abroad. Thus in this same year B.-P. went to Russia to discuss the Boy Scouts with the Tsar. The contrast between Scout and military methods could nowhere have been so marked. This is brought out in B.-P.'s recollections, written in 1918, of a visit to a Moscow Cadet School.
The school staff entertained me at luncheon as a preliminary to the inspection. Needless to say they were all in uniform, wearing swords, etc. The head master was an ancient colonel who had been in this position for over thirty years!
Before we were through the 'zakoushka', or hors-d'œuvres, my hosts were hard at it endeavouring to fill me up with wine, which still remained the surest sign of Russian hospitality. It is true that by the exercise of a certain amount of camouflage I got through the ordeal safely. But the fact of the attempt speaks for itself.
The parade of the Cadets was wonderful for precision of drill and smartness, the dormitories were spotless, each commanded by a noncommissioned officer from the Army. The discipline was of the very strictest; no games were countenanced, natural tendencies were repressed in every direction, the boys were taught to fear and to obey.
Yet those lads had all the boyish go and spirit in them waiting to be utilized.
Such Cadet-training was to me like an ordinary cyclist riding a motor-bike, and arduously propelling it by the pedals from outside, when all the time the spirit that was within would have run the whole thing for him if he only liked to apply it.
The spirit was there right enough. A guard of honour of the Russian Boy Scouts was formed up at the station to see me off; rigid as stone they stood in their ranks, but one could see the life and soul of the boy blazing in those excited eyes as one walked down the line.
It struck me so much that I could not leave them with a mere glance, so I walked back, shaking hands with each. As I neared the finish their feelings became too much for them. There was a sudden cry, they broke their ranks and were all over me in a second, shaking hands, kissing my clothes, and everyone bent on giving me some sort of keepsake out of his pocket. The eager enthusiasm of boyhood was there, ready to respond even to a stranger and a foreigner.
To me it was typical, and accounted for much of what has happened since on a large scale in Russia.
Give a natural flowing stream its run in the right direction and it will serve you well. Dam it up with artificial restrictions, and some day it will burst the bonds and maybe become a raging, ruinous flood. Imposed discipline leads to reaction; discipline from within needs none.
Moral: Don't trust to military training as the best preparation for modern citizenship. For up-to-date self-government up-to-date self-education seems the right preparatory step.
In the summer of 1910 he took two Patrols of Scouts to tour Canada. and he also visited the United States. The Movement had reached that country as a result of a 'Good Turn' done by a Boy Scout to an American publisher, William D. Boyce, when he was visiting London. On his return to his own country he took back with him copies of Scouting for Boys and of various pamphlets.
A dinner was given to B.-P. in New York on the 23rd September by the pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America. It was presided over by Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton. The official History records that:
Baden-Powell modestly said he was not going to prescribe for us, as he outlined the work in England. He stressed the general idea of the need of Scouting, its aims, and the English method of carrying it out and some of the results attained. He touched on the fundamentals in boy life and congratulated us on our progress. Those who heard him understood, in part at least, why the Boy Scout Movement had succeeded. This timely visit of the creator of the modern Boy Scout gave a sharp impetus to our work in America.
More and more public men were beginning to take an interest in this new Movement. We have seen how Edward VII had shown his sympathy; he showed it not only in honouring B.-P. but by permitting boys who had gained certain qualifications to be called 'King's Scouts', and by expressing a wish to review a Rally at Windsor. Unhappily he died before the plans for this could be carried out, but George V showed the same interest and on the 4th July 1911 about 30,000 Scouts were present in Windsor Great Park. Spectators were amazed --- and some possibly startled -at their sight of a Scout Rush --- a form of Rally devised by B.-P. Instead of having the boys drawn up in serried ranks patiently or impatiently waiting to be inspected, they were concealed at some distance round a wide circle. At a given signal, they leapt up and rushed wildly forward yelling their heads off --- a fearsome spectacle to the stranger; then when they reached an arranged position they stopped dead in complete silence. A cartoon by Bernard Partridge in Punch was well entitled 'The Capture of Windsor Castle' as it showed a Boy Scout cheering from the battlements.
Two pronouncements on the Movement are typical of many during the early years. In March 1911 Lord Haldane again took the chair at a lecture given by B.-P. at the Royal United Service Institution but this time the subject was 'Boy Scouts' and not 'The Territorials'. In his introductory speech Lord Haldane pointed out that:
in this country our educational organization had been very limited in scope, and what General Baden-Powell had done was to bring into it new elements of development. . . . The differential quality of General Baden-Powell's plan was, first, its elasticity, and, in the second place, this fact, that it appealed to certain instincts which were deeply implanted in the British boy, and which were perhaps more easily taken old of than any other instinct.... They were able to see how different the boys were after they had gone through their course of training. They saw the result of awakening in a boy a sense of responsibility.
A few months later Lord Kitchener, who was President of the North London Scouts, said at a Rally in Leicestershire, that the Boy Scout Movement
breaks down class prejudice, promotes comradeship, discipline, resourcefulness, self-reliance and sympathy ... There is one thought I would like to impress upon you --- once a Scout always a Scout. You will find the Scout Law and Scout training very useful through life, so never allow Scouting to be looked upon as a game that is over.
A third prominent supporter was Lord Rosebery. In addressing a Rally of Scouts in Midlothian he said:
You have no connection with politics, and I hope you never may have. You have no connection with military matters. As to that I say nothing. But what you are is this --- a high fellowship, embodied to preserve and observe great principles --- self-help and help to others, patriotism and loyalty, honour, faith, and duty. Those, as I gather from your rules, are the objects that the Boy Scouts have in view. They wish to form character and to form citizens, and all that I can say of them is this, that if I were to form the highest ideal for my country, it would be this, that it should be a nation of which the manhood was exclusively composed of men who had been or who were Boy Scouts, and who were trained in the Boy Scout theory. Such a nation would be the honour of mankind. It would be the greatest moral force that the world has ever known; and, therefore, I ask you boys to carry from your meeting to-day this memory ---that you will impress on yourselves as faithfully as may be the principles it is designed to sustain. Carry them out in yourselves. Impress them on others, and make them the rule of your coming lives. Then you will bless yourselves, and be a blessing to your country.
The view of the general public was well expressed by Mr. H. G. Wells in The New Machiavelli, published in 1911.
There suddenly appeared in my world a new sort of little boy --- a most agreeable development of the slouching, cunning, cigarette-smoking, town-bred youngster --- a small boy in a khaki hat, with bare knees and athletic bearing, earnestly engaged in wholesome and invigorating games --- the Boy Scout. I liked the Boy Scout.
It must not be assumed from these specimens of public support that there was no criticism; apart from the ridicule which the uniform at first excited---and it needed courage in the early days to appear in shorts, especially in towns --the chief attack came from those who, to quote one, said that the object was 'to foster among the boys of Britain a bloodthirsty and warlike spirit'. The most sustained attack came from a Captain Noemo (presumably a nom de guerre) who wrote in 1912 a book entitled The Boy Scout Bubble: a Review of a Great Futility. He found easy game in those early Scoutmasters who devised their own fantastic uniforms; he gave instances of bad camping, lack of discipline, and of inefficient Scoutmasters. There was some truth in these accusations -they were just examples of the price to be paid for allowing such freedom of action to the leaders; a price, it has been noted, B.-P. thought worth paying, and his judgement has been fully justified.
Captain Noemo, however, showed a complete misunderstanding of the principles underlying the Movement when he came to criticize the Scout Law and objected that such offences as 'theft, slander, or worse' are not forbidden. He went on to urge that the well-tried activities of an ,English sportsman were better than Scouting. 'Whether it is wise to substitute for the old and well-tried sports, country rambles, etc., a form of organized amusement based on romance and make-believe is extremely doubtful.' Against this B.-P. noted in his copy, 'or loafing'; and on another page he wrote, 'sense of humour a little deficient'. The critic inevitably raised the military bogy, and it is necessary to consider this point more fully as it was for long the most frequent ground of objection to the Scout Movement.
Everything depends on what is meant by 'militarism': if it means the teaching of military drill and movements, then Scouting is patently not military; it is indeed a common complaint that the marching of a Scout Troop, when this is necessary, is a sad spectacle! If by militarism is meant the teaching of a jingo patriotism, it is only necessary to refer to the work done by Scouting in helping to draw the youth of all nations together; of this aspect, much more must he said in a later chapter. 'Scouting', said B.-P., 'is not drums and flags, but life in the woods and the open.' The truth is simply that B.-P always stressed the possibility of a citizen having to fight for his country, and the qualities of character developed in Scouting are valuable under all circumstances, preferably in peace, but if necessary in war as well.
B.-P did not often trouble to reply to public criticisms, but he could not resist one opportunity provided by a correspondent who accused the Movement of being pacifist. He wrote:
The Scouts Association may well be grateful to the anonymous 'Cadet Officer' who has pointed out that the Movement has got into the hands of Pacifists as this will tend to dissipate the accusation made that it is in the grip of Militarists.
Which are we to believe ? As a matter of fact the Movement is on a well-established basis of its own which is independent of parties, or fads; it is merely an educational step which aims at helping parents and teachers to develop the boy physically and morally, in his spare time, towards becoming a capable and happy man, and a good citizen. It is quite true that, in spirit, we encourage the youngster to think in terms of peace and friendliness towards others and towards other nations; and that in practical training we avoid military method. The reason for this is that however instructive it may be it is not educative; it tends to make the boy part of a machine instead of developing his individuality and character. But this does not prevent Scouts as they grow older from taking up military or naval work for their country if needed. They are taught that if a man wants to claim rights as a citizen he should also be prepared to earn them by shouldering his responsibilities and duties for the good of the community.
The origin of this charge of militarism is probably simple. B.-P. was a soldier; the Scout Movement came into prominence just at the time when Parliament was discussing his 'German invasion' lecture to his Territorial officers; moreover many of the early Scout Commissioners held military rank, due very largely to the fact that B.-P. naturally approached former fellow-officers or those who had served under him. These things put together spelled militarism to some critics, and no strength of argument could shake them. It is very doubtful, however, if they did any harm. Certainly no criticism hindered the development of the Movement.
,Reference has already been made to the disconcerting presence of 'Girl Scouts' at the Crystal Palace in 1909. It was clear that something would have to be done about it! As a temporary measure the girls were allowed to register themselves at Scout Headquarters, and within a year some 8,000 had done so. B.-P. then persuaded his sister Agnes to undertake the organization of a Movement parallel to the Boy Scouts to which he gave the name 'Girl Guides'. For several years he was unable to give much attention to this new development --- for there were limits even to his energies --- and it went through a difficult period due as much to prejudice against any schemes which seemed part --- as indeed it unconsciously was --- of the 'women's rights' movement, and the suffragettes happened to be particularly militant during the early years of the Girl Guides. The Handbook for Girl Guides by Agnes Baden-Powell was published in 1912.
That same year saw the granting of a Charter of Incorporation to the Boy Scouts Association, and the beginning of an experiment in which B.-P was very closely interested --- the Scout Farm at Buckhurst Place in Kent. The main purpose was the training of Boy Scouts on the land to prepare them for farming in this country, but particularly overseas. The whole method of control was based on the principles of the Patrol system. There were all kinds of difficulties, but these were gradually being overcome when war broke out and the experiment had reluctantly to be abandoned.
In January 1912 B.-P. set off on a world tour to study the problems of Scouting in the Dominions and Colonies; he also saw something of the Movement amongst European boys in China and Japan, and of its rapid growth in the United States. Wherever he went he was received with enthusiasm by the local Scouts, and his visits did much to educate the public as to the true aims and methods of Scouting.
Lord Frederick Hamilton in his book of reminiscences, Here, There and Everywhere, records the following incident:
The Trinidad negro being naturally an indolent creature, all the boatmen and cab-drivers in Port~of-Spain are Barbadians. As we know, the Badians have an inordinate opinion of themselves and of their island. Whilst I was in Trinidad, General Baden-Powell came there in the course of his world-tour inspection of Boy Scouts. On the day of General Baden-Powell's arrival, all the Badian boatmen and cab-drivers struck work, and the Governor's aide-de camp, who was in the town, met serried phalanxes of dark faces hurrying to the landing stage. On asking a Badian what the excitement was about, the negro answered with infinite hauteur:
'You ask me dat, sir? You not know dat our great countryman General Badian-Powell arrive to-day, so we all go welcome him.'
B.-P. was followed to the West Indies by Major Fetherstonhaugh who was helping with the organization of Scouting overseas. The latter provides this record of the tour.
I was to have met him at Kingston, Jamaica, he preceding me in the R.M.S.P. Co.'s Arcadian, then a new ship and the first to have a swimming bath, which became a great attraction. I found he had not left that ship at Kingston after all; but he did leave me a letter which said that he had had a very rough passage out, that the ship had rolled badly, and, like most new ones, had leaky decks, so that the driest place in the ship was the swimming bath after all the water had been flung out. I followed him round the West Indies on various jobs and could not make out why he stuck to that ship like a limpet.
The explanation is provided in the recollections of a fellow-traveller:
In January 1912 Sir Robert Baden-Powell was a fellow passenger with my husband and myself in the old Arcadian, on a voyage to the West Indies, Panama, etc. He was seen off by Scouts at Southampton and met by Scouts at all the various ports of call, receiving a tremendous ovation from black ones at Trinidad. In the same ship Miss Soames --- the future Chief Guide --- was travelling with her father, and according to ship's rumour the romance began by his admiration of her skill and grace in the sports. The General was a great stand-by in the ship's concerts, and I remember a clever water-colour sketch which he did as we were passing Nombre de Dios, of the sea shown in section with Drake lying below. We saw no more of him after New York, where we had to leave the ship, which went on round the world, but oddly enough, in the following year, we came across the couple, then on their honeymoon, at Hammam Mesokoutine, in North Africa.
B.-P. had noticed Olave St. Clair Soames in London; he had been attracted by her determined gait.
I happened to notice that she had a spaniel with her.
This was while I was still in the Army and I was going into Knightsbridge Barracks at the time. I thought no more of it.
Two years later, on board my ship for the West Indies, I recognized the same gait in a fellow-passenger. When introduced I charged her with living in London. Wrong. My sleuthing was at fault; she lived in Dorsetshire!
'But have you not a brown and white spaniel?'
'Yes.' (Surprise registered.)
'Were you never in London? Near Knightsbridge Barracks?'
'Yes, two years ago.'
So we married --- and lived happily ever after
From the Arcadian, Miss Soames wrote to her mother, 'The only interesting person on board is General Baden-Powell, the Scout man'. No announcement of an engagement was made until B.-P. returned from his world tour as her father felt that, on account of the differences in ages, a delay was desirable.
Amongst the guests at a dinner in the Mercers' Hall to celebrate the official engagement was General Louis Botha, the Prime Minister of South Africa, who happened to be in England. He raised his glass to toast 'the lady who has captured the man we could never catch'.
It is impossible to express all that marriage meant to B.-P. in added happiness and companionship. Now at last there was someone to exercise some control over his too generous expenditure of time and energy for the causes in which he was interested, and for him to be interested meant an active share in the work. Lady Baden-Powell was able also to watch his health more carefully than he himself ever did. Few meeting him realized that frequently the cheerful greeting concealed his true physical condition. To intimates he admitted that at times he was not fit. 'I am getting some of my "heads" again which make me very stupid at getting work done, so be lenient!' Or again, 'I am all right one day and baddish the next. My doctor has typed out for me a long dissertation on my complaint, but it is so full of bad words that I scarcely understand that it is more than a mild form of migraine. This I used to think was what ladies suffered from when they smell a vinaigrette --- but I find it is brainfag in ordinary terms. Great nuisance!'
But the greatest happiness of all came with the children -Peter in 1913, Heather in 1915 and Betty in 1917. Only those who knew the B.-P.s at home --- at Ewhurst, at Little Mynthurst Farm, or at Pax Hill --- can realize the gaiety and comradeship of that family life.
In January 1913 the B.-P.s sailed from Southampton for Algeria; from Biskra they set out on a tramping camp amongst the desert mountains. As on all such expeditions, B.-P. collected ideas from his experiences to pass on to the boys through the pages of The Scout, or by means of books of yams written for them. Here is a specimen note:
We were awfully sorry to finish our tramping camp. It was over much too soon, but in the short time that we were at it we picked up lots of health and enjoyment, and also a good many useful camp hints.
One of these --- like so many great discoveries --- was found by accident.
My wife, like a good Scout, kept everything very clean in camp, and our joke was that whenever there was a moment to spare she would set to work to scrub the saucepan. That seemed to be her favourite job, using a handful of sand and a twist of coarse grass, and the result was a bright, clean saucepan in which to cook our food.
A good deal of sickness comes in camps when dirty saucepans are used.
When she was not cleaning the saucepan her other spare minutes were spent in cleaning up the camp ground, and burning all scraps.
One morning when doing this she made a great discovery. It was this --- how to make toast without a good fire. She had wrapped some unused slices of bread in some waste paper, and put the whole lot among the ashes of our palm-leaf fire in order to bum them.
The paper gradually charred and burnt itself away, and left the bread behind it nicely roasted into crisp brown toast!
Another tip which we learnt in camp was how to find truffles. These are a kind of root akin to a mushroom, which grow entirely underground. They are very nice to eat, and command a good price in the market.
In France the people find them with pigs; the pigs are able to scent them, and proceed to root them up with their snouts, when the man steps in and collars the truffle.
The Arabs showed us how to find them in the desert, where they are quite plentiful.
We had to examine the ground pretty carefully as we went along, and where we saw a few little cracks in the surface leading out from one centre where the earth bulged up a little --- there we dug down two or three inches and found the truffle.
B.-P. returned to a full programme of work; he became Master of the Mercers' Company, having been a Warden since 1910. Membership of this most ancient of the Livery Companies of London has for a long period now been hereditary. and the name of Powell goes back many generations. The office of Master is by no means a sinecure, and it involves constant attendance on the multifarious business of the Company connected with its educational and benevolent trusts and funds. The Mastership carried with it the Chairmanship of the Governors of St. Paul's School --- a most congenial task for B.-P. as three of his brothers had been at the school.
Another interest was the London Sketch Club of which he was an active member for some years. In 1912 some of the artists, including John Hassall, Phil May, and Tom Browne, put together a portfolio of original sketches for sale in support of the Scout Movement.
The great Scout event in 1913 was the Exhibition of Scoutcraft at Birmingham which for the first time opened the eyes of the public to the valuable work being done by the Movement in encouraging leisure time activities and various crafts which might enable a boy to discover abilities which had so far been latent.
Meanwhile the Movement was developing and expanding in many directions; it certainly seemed as if this was no mushroom growth but an acorn which was taking firm root. Within a year of the Birmingham Exhibition it was to be tested as no young Movement had ever been tested before.
JANUARY 1914 seemed to usher in a year of promise for the Scout Movement. Numbers were growing steadily and many plans were under consideration for further developments and advances. Thus in the first issue for the year of the Headquarters Gazette, B.-P. began a series of articles on 'Scouting for Scoutmasters' as a means of training them for their work. In April there was an important Conference at Manchester combined with a Rally and Demonstrations; such topics as the following indicate the problems which the Movement was facing: 'Scouting and Education', 'Senior Scouts', 'The Religious and Moral Basis', and 'The Badge System'.
In June, Queen Alexandra inspected 11,000 London Boy Scouts, and for the first time the juniors, the Wolf Cubs, were seen at a public Rally. This new development was almost inevitable. The younger brothers of Scouts naturally wanted to join in the fun; sometimes they were allowed to do so because the Scoutmasters were not hard-hearted enough to refuse. But small boys dressed as Scouts and carrying staffs tended to bring ridicule on Troops and to deter older boys from joining. It was not long before some Scoutmasters began to experiment with junior Scouts and to write to B.-P. to tell him of their problems. He saw at once the nature of the problem and the necessity for finding a solution, so he encouraged experiments; and examined reports on what was being done. He sought advice and suggestions from any whose opinions he felt were likely to be helpful and gradually a scheme began to take shape. in December 1913 he wrote:
Junior Scouts should be as simple an organization as possible --- but I believe in its importance. I'd call the branch by another name, less school-like, e.g. Young Scouts, Wolf Cubs, Colts, or something of the kind.
After the period of inquiry and experiment had passed, the drawing up of a scheme was done by Mr. P. W. Everett, and this was published in the Headquarters Gazette in January 1914. A special salute and badge (a Wolf Cub's head), a very simple promise of duty and helpfulness, and some easy tests were devised suited to the age period of 9 to 11 or 12. A handbook by B.-P. was 'shortly to be published', but events delayed this for two years. The stroke of genius in the scheme, however, was the use he made of the Mowgli stories from Kipling's Jungle Books to provide an imaginative background for the activities. This not only made an irresistible appeal to the small boys, but it gave the Wolf Cubs a distinctive character as compared with the Boy Scouts, one which was suited to the psychological needs of the younger age.
The new branch soon proved popular and by the end of the year 10,000 small boys, wearing a distinctive uniform, were enthusiastic Wolf Cubs.
Another problem had also to be faced. What of the boys over 16? Practically all these were at work and some were breaking off their connexion with the main Movement. B.-P.'s first solution has some interesting features. He decided to link up these boys with the National Health Insurance Scheme which had come into operation in 1912. The proposal was to form a Scouts' Friendly Society with, to quote his draft, the following objects:
(1) To keep Boy Scouts in touch with each other and with the Movement when they have to leave their Troops and go out to battle with the world.
(2) To preserve the ideals of good citizenship which they have been taught as Scouts.
(3) To attract to the Movement young men who have not been Scouts, and to give them the opportunity for doing a service to their country.
The Society was shortly afterwards registered, and in March the first 'Camp' corresponding with the Lodge of the older Friendly Societies, was formed at Toynbee Hall with Dr. Lukis of East London as Head Man.
Had it not been for the dislocating effect of the war which broke out a few months later, it is quite possible that the scheme would have developed in the way in which B.-P. so much desired, but the 'Camp' idea had no chance to take root as very soon the members were scattered before the paramount needs of the country.
Yet another Scout service occupied B.-P.'s time and thoughts during the early months of 1914. At the beginning of February, an appeal was issued for the establishment of an Endowment Fund for the Movement: it had the support of the President, the Duke of Connaught. At the end of a letter to the Press, B.-P. said:
If you cannot give yourself for the work, will you give us a donation of such size as will mark your sense of its importance? Let us, in the words of the highwayman, have 'your money or your life'.
He toured the country to appeal for support; during the first six months the £100,000 mark was passed, then this effort too had to be abandoned on the outbreak of war.
In spite of all these activities he found time to visit Homer Lane's 'Little Commonwealth' and to examine and admire the methods used to rehabilitate young criminals. A visit he had previously paid to the George Junior Republic in America provided him with an interesting comparison in principles.
Those who realized how much he was doing were not surprised to read this note in his 'Outlook' in the Headquarters Gazette for August:
A recent number of the Gazette drew attention to the fact that I was 'leading a double life', that in addition to these various duties in the Scout Movement, I had also plenty to do in my capacity as Honorary Colonel of the 13th Hussars, and President of three societies for promoting the welfare of old soldiers, in addition to the pretty arduous work attaching to the Mastership of the Mercers' Company in London, which, in itself, involves two to three days a week of work. These duties, however, would have been fairly simple had I not been working under the handicap of overwork, dating back to two or three years ago; that I have been able to do so is entirely due to the splendid assistance given to me by the Staff. Fortunately for me, the brunt of the work comes to an end this autumn, and the doctor decrees that a good bit of rest will set me up and put me in a position for returning to work with greatly increased efficiency.
The Heads of the Movement in South Africa are anxious for me to pay a visit there, and I am equally anxious to go, in order to promote the very important step of consolidating the organization there, and of getting the Boer boys into brotherhood with the British born, and so bringing them into mutual touch and sympathy, which will be of value in destroying the prejudices naturally enhanced by the South African War, and making them into one nation as far as possible. So my purpose is to go to South Africa in the autumn and, after seeing the Scouts in their various centres, to take my wife for a long trek on the veldt, away from all posts and telegrams, for the best of holidays --the simple life in the open.
But this plan was defeated by the outbreak of war on the 4th August, and B.-P. added as a footnote to his 'Outlook' a call to service. His brief comment on the cause of the War reads:
It shows how little are the peoples of these countries as yet in sufficient mutual sympathy as to render wars impossible between them. This will be so until better understanding is generally established. Let us do what we can through the Scout brotherhood to promote this in the future. For the immediate present we have duties to our country to perform.
In the next issue of the Gazette, he developed more fully his thoughts upon the war:
War is going to be on its trial before a jury of the nations. It has to show whether its causes and the ultimate results can justify the immense destruction of the best manhood of a continent, the vast commerce the reversion to brute force and bloodshed, and the misery inflicted upon millions of innocents.
Whether war is, as the various authorities would have us to suppose. the work of armament makers, or of ambitious monarchs, or simply of human nature that sweeps aside without a thought the palaces of peace, the office-made rules of the game of war, the protests of anti-militarists, and so on, we have yet to know.
The Damoclesian sword of war ever hanging over a country has its value in keeping up the manliness of a people, in developing self-sacrificing heroism in its soldiers, in uniting classes, creeds, and parties. and in showing the pettiness of party politics in its true proportion.
In any case, this war will have proved how essential to the safety of a nation it is to be prepared, in season and out, not merely for what may be probable, but for what may even be possible.
The waste of wealth involved in maintaining this state of readiness has grown to be enormous. Though it may be true that the money is spent within the country, it is nevertheless a non-profit-bearing turnover and does not, therefore, add to the nation's wealth or prosperity. It is at best an insurance of our ship against storms.
The point to be considered is whether these storms are due to laws of Nature, to the hand of God, or to the machinations of men. If the latter, could not some more effective method be devised than this clogging preparation which in the end not only fails in its object of preventing war, but brings it about on a bigger scale when it eventually comes?
These are matters which every lover of his kind and of his God should think out and fit himself to pronounce judgment upon.
The awful drama is being unfolded before him; he may himself before long be an actor in it; he will, in any case, have ample opportunity for studying the question.
But the lessons of this war, when grasped, should not then be thrown away and forgotten; they should give urgent reason for a more effective education in the brotherhood of man such as shall prevent the recurrence in future generations of the horror now falling upon us and upon millions of innocent fellow sufferers of all nations.
I believe that with the dawn of peace after this terrible storm-cloud has rolled away our Scout brotherhood may take a big place m the scheme of uniting the nations in a closer and better bond of mutual understanding and sympathy such as will tend to fulfil that hope.
The Scouts were immediately engaged in all kinds of national service jobs: acting as messengers in Government offices and elsewhere; patrolling railway lines; guarding bridges; helping hospitals; collecting waste paper and other salvage; flax harvesting; and as buglers to sound the 'All Clear' after air-raids. These are but some of the great number of tasks undertaken by Scouts during the four years of the war. The quick response and the efficiency shown were a remarkable tribute to the standard reached by the six-year-old Movement.
Indeed when war came some believed that the Movement must collapse under the strain. As many Scoutmasters volunteered for Kitchener's Army and for other kinds of service, it did seem as though many Troops would perish. But this testing period only served to prove the soundness of the Patrol System. in some cases women took the places of men, but in far more instances the boys carried on with the Court of Honour as the directing body. Of course there were failures, but these came where the Troop had not been run on the lines laid down by B.-P. The Scoutmaster had perhaps done all the organizing himself and had faded to give responsibility to the Patrol Leaders.
The finest work done by the Scouts, however, was in coastguard service. Lord Kitchener had suggested that Sea Scouts should be used for this work to free the coastguard men for service afloat where the need for men was urgent. The scheme was organized under the Admiral Commanding Coastguard and Reserves and it was in force from the 5th August 1914 to the 7th March 1920, during which period some 30,000 Scouts passed through the service.
B.-P. inspected as many stations as he could, and he must indeed have felt that all his work was more than fully justified when he found how reliable the boys proved under service conditions. Here is part of an account of what he had seen:
It revived old memories of night reconnaissance when I found myself walking along for a short spell with the Night Patrol of Coast Watching Scouts. Their energetic Commissioner was with them, nor was it the first time he had turned out to share their nocturnal tramp. Down by devious tracks along by the shore we went, the boys evidently knowing every inch of the ground, and well they might for the despatch that they were carrying, that is the extract of their day's log and that of the next Patrol beyond them, was numbered 1119. For eleven hundred and nineteen consecutive nights since the war began had these Patrols passed on their despatches all down that rough coast, in foul weather as well as fair, in spite of storms and snowdrifts, until they reached the Naval Base Commander. The despatch carrying is not their only task. As we went along my guide suddenly remarked a light shining in a farmhouse window and thither we made our way. He knocked and politely but firmly desired them to screen their window. When I turned to go I found he remained behind, as he afterwards explained it was to see that the order was carried out as 'he did not trust those folk one yard'. The culverts of the railway line where it ran close beside the sea all had to be examined as also the underground cable and the overhead wire.
On one occasion they had caught a suspicious stranger lurking there and he had been taken over and marched off by the military escort.
The Coastwatching Patrol live in most cases in a two or three-roomed cottage where the boys do all their own domestic work of cooking, housekeeping, housemaiding, and gardening, plus lots of handyman work to make their quarters snug. In every case the Leader kept the ration accounts and the daily log or record of special items at every single station. At every single station I visited, different incidents showed the varied nature of their work, such as these --- 'Warned a destroyer off the rocks in a fog', 'Sighted and reported airship going S.S.E., five miles distant', 'Provided night guard over damaged seaplane which was towed ashore by drifter'. 'Light shown near at 3.15 a.m. for seven minutes, and again from apparently the same spot at 4.35 a.m.', 'Trawler No. --- came ashore. Permits all in order except J---- M- who had none. Took his name and address to Police Superintendent at -'. 'Floating mine reported by fishing boat No.---- Proceeded with the Patrol boat which located and blew up the mine', 'Provided guard over wreck and stores three days and nights in --- Bay'. In addition to these duties there was a mounted Patrol of cyclists whose duty was to ride with despatches for the Naval Commander, with messages and warnings to fishermen about the Coasts, and so on, and I was told they had done invaluable service.
These lads completely won my admiration not only by their smartness in appearance and their keenness, but by their reliability. You must remember that in many of the stations visited there are no Coastguards or local Naval Officers, the boys are entirely on their own under their Patrol Leaders. They are visited occasionally by their Commissioner or Coastguard Officer but the Leader has all the time to act on his own responsibility in keeping the duties effectively performed and the Scouts properly fed and housed. These have been at the same work week after week, month after month, yet they do not seem tired of it. There has been only one case of sickness, chicken p ox, among the whole lot; their healthy faces and their enormous bills for boot repairs show the work that they do. It all proves what boys can do when their heart is in their work and when they are trusted as reliable beings.
Two questions have frequently been asked: Why was B.-P. not employed on active service during the war? Did he do any Secret Service work --- in particular, was he in Germany?
When war broke out, he was 57 years of age; only four years had passed since he had retired to organize the Boy Scouts. Plumer was the same age; Allenby and Haig were only four years younger, and French was five years older. Many people at the time wondered why B.-P. was not given a command. He naturally put himself at the service of the War Office as soon as war was declared, and offered to raise a regiment of ex-officers and men of the South African Constabulary; this offer was carefully considered by Kitchener, but he decided that it would be better for these men to be distributed amongst the new battalions to stiffen the inexperienced younger men. It has already been noted that he called upon the Sea Scouts at once to provide a coastguard service, and his high opinion of the value of the Boy Scouts explains the following footnote in Sir George Arthur's Concerning Winston Spencer Churchill; in discussing the question of the Antwerp Relief Force, Sir George, who was Kitchener's Secretary, says:
When it was proposed that a division should be assigned to General Baden-Powell, the War Secretary said that he could lay his hand on several competent Divisional Generals, but could find no one who could carry on the invaluable work of the Boy Scouts.
The persistent rumours that B.-P. was in Germany on Secret Service work will probably never be killed, in spite of his emphatic statement that he was not in Germany during the war. Even he himself could not get this fact accepted by a naval officer who declared that he had taken special care of B.-P. when carrying him across to Germany! He was in touch with the Intelligence Service during his army career, and his knowledge of some of the German agents over here enabled the authorities to arrest them when war was declared. His only foreign visit which had any direct bearing on the Intelligence Service was when he went to Spain in 1918 to inspect the Scouts. He was then able to make some inquiries into the use German submarines were then believed to be making of Spanish ports.
America, however, was more definite on the subject, and in May 1916 B.-P. received the following information from one of the Press Associations:
11th May, 1916
DEAR SIR,
A letter has just reached me from our New York office stating that a rumour is in circulation in the States to the effect that you are at present sojourning in the Tower of London under a charge of espionage.
Recalling Mark Twain's historic remark that the report of his death was exaggerated, I am sure that a similar statement direct from you in this connexion would be received with much satisfaction by your many friends in America.
Trusting that you will find it convenient to drop me a line, I am, Yours very truly,
A. B.
To this B.-P. replied:
May 15th, 1916
DEAR SIR,
I regret that the report that I am sojourning in the Tower of London, under a charge of espionage, cannot be correct, as I was taken out and shot over a month ago (according to a Chicago newspaper). I am not clear which country I was spying for, but at the moment I am fairly busy on work for Great Britain.
Yours truly,
ROBERT BADEN-POWELL.
The announcement in one American newspaper was as follows:
BADEN-POWELL SHOT AS A SPY January 15th, 1916. Pittsburgh, Pa.
SHOT to death by English soldiers on his return to England as a German SPY.
That is what happened to Major-General Robertson [sic] Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, hero of the defence of Mafeking in the Boer War, and organizer of the Boy Scouts, when he went back to London and was caught with papers in his possession, showing maps of Great Britain's fortifications that he is said to have been selling to the enemy of England. ---This statement is made by a man who says he is a Britisher and that the execution was witnessed by his brother.
'My story is a true one,' he declared to-night. 'I can tell you nothing else. My brother saw the execution with his own eyes. My brother explained that Baden-Powell marched to his place of execution without a quiver, and, as the cover was being placed over his eyes, said only these words: "May God have mercy". If reports be true, and 1 am sure that my brother is to be relied upon, England has put into his last sleep one of the bravest soldiers who ever headed her armies in foreign lands'.
B.-P.'s comment was, 'It was really worth being shot as a spy to gain so sweet an epitaph as that'.
Those who know how fully occupied he was during the war period realize that there was little, if any, spare time for spying expeditions. He was not only very active in the Scout Movement: during 1915, for instance, he gave much time to the provision of huts in France in association with the Y.M.C.A. He was naturally most interested in the Mercers' Hut which he had been instrumental in getting, and later in the Scout and Guide Huts, as well as their Ambulance Cars. By the end of 1916 the Scouts provided four huts in France and seven ambulances. Lady Baden-Powell was very actively engaged in the same work and together they ran the Mercers' Hut for some months. When the first Scout Hut was opened at Etaples, he wrote to Mr. P. W. Everett in a letter dated 2nd January 1915:
We are awfully busy here. We opened the Scout Hut at Etaples yesterday with greatest success. Though supplies are scarce and no Scoutmasters have come to take up work, we thought it best to get the hut under way if only to give the men shelter and warmth in this filthy weather. And I am glad that we did for it has been a big success. The place was crammed to standing room yesterday the moment that the doors were opened, and has been so all day.
We got a very good concert entertainment for them last night after the Commandant here had formally opened the place --- and the trade done at the bar was tremendous. My wife, Miss B.A., a Scoutmaster from another hut, a man we picked up here, and a helpful ex-Scout or two --- as well as myself --- had as much as we could do in serving the men in the evening. The men are delighted with the place.
My wife and I gave a tea to ex-Scouts before the place was opened and about 40 turned up.
The following letters written in November 1915 give examples of the kind of service B.-P. rendered. The first is to General Allenby.
5th November, 1915
DEAR ALLENBY,
I am just now at home collecting funds for more Y.M.C.A. Huts in France. The demand for them goes on increasing, and I am not only hard put to it to raise funds, but also to get the necessary men and women to run them. People are, however, very good in coming forward to help.
In the meantime I am anxious to arrive at some idea of how many more are wanted, and I therefore venture to bother you at this very busy time to ask whether you would like any Y.M.C.A. marquee institutes sent up to your front for the coming winter. The 2nd Army has already asked us and we have sent up some, and I should be glad to do the same for you if you wish it.
Best of good wishes to you personally for your further successes.
Yours sincerely,
ROBERT BADEN-POWELL.
The other two were to Mr. Oliver H. McCowen, the Organizing. Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. with the Expeditionary Force in France.
20th November, 1915
DEAR MCCOWEN,
I have been into the question of huts asked for in III Army --- with General White, and he is most anxious to be helpful in getting them up.
To-day General Allenby took me round some of the proposed centres --- and I also saw General Lambton about those proposed for the 4th Corps.
Forceville is a particularly useful centre in point of numbers of men resting and passing through. I believe that the General would give a barn or building.
Hedanville is a small place but a useful one.
Bray in the X Corps has a large number of men but is liable to shell fire. I think a magazine would be needed here and a dug out refuge for the staff
Suzann seems to me almost too liable to be under fire when any active operations come on.
Meaulte is a small place ---would need a marquee. It is however within two miles of Albert where there is lots of house accommodation. and there is already a Soldiers' Club there.
Rennecourt and Mellincourt are both small places a mile apart. Both full of troops of 81st Division. One hut or barn might serve both, at any rate to start with.
Bouzincourt we might get a building.
I visited the institute at Beauguesne. It is well managed and much used by the men. The Manager wants material sent up for building a lean-to about 120 X 20 feet. The Engineers will help to put it up if the material could be sent.
It seems to me that in many villages we could do as the R.A.M.C. have done and do up old buildings to serve as institutes. For such purpose it is well to get up a number of rolls of waterproof felt.
Or in some cases it may be possible to hire the church from the village priest.
Yours sincerely,
ROBERT BADEN-POWELL.
26th November, 1915
DEAR McCOWEN,
I have just been on a tour in Manchester and Liverpool with Yapp with a view to extracting money for more huts at the Front, and I am delighted to say that we were exceedingly well received and there is every promise of our getting a pretty substantial sum --- probably about £12,000.
The people are evidently willing to give in so good a cause so you will be able to go ahead with a good number of huts for the front line immediately.
I hope that we shall shortly be able to get a number of capable women. to come and run the huts at the bases and thus release a good number of the male staff to go on and take up work at the front centres.
I have just had an earnest application from the 48th Division for a hut if it can possibly be supplied. Perhaps you will kindly do what you can for them.
If there is anything I can do while at home, please let me know.
I hope to be out again at the middle of December, and shall be very glad if the Scout Hut at Etaples can be then ready.
Yours sincerely,
ROBERT BADEN-POWELL.
He paid several visits to the Front and was always a welcome guest amongst his many friends on the Staffs. His own regiment was in France in 1915 so he was able to visit it, but later it left for the Middle East, and he had to be content with following its fortunes through reports and letters from the Commanding Officer. His mere presence was a tonic to the Troops and his lectures to the Troops were unusually popular. Many of his listeners were acquainted with a small book he had written at the outbreak of hostilities under the title Quick Training for War; this had had a phenomenal sale and provided many a raw recruit with useful practical hints and encouragement.
Another book he wrote at this time was naturally popular for it was entitled My Adventures as a Spy (later called The Adventures of a Spy). This related amongst others some of the episodes referred to in an earlier chapter. He also saw through the press his Indian Memories based upon his letter-diaries. He was at work on a book of yarns for Scouts entitled Young Knights of the Empire, and The Wolf Cub's Handbook, both of which were published in 1916.
Meanwhile the Scout and Guide Movements continued to grow and to make more and more calls upon his time, and he was constantly thinking and planning for their welfare.
The Guide Movement profited from the broadening of women's life which the war quickened. Many of the former prejudices disappeared as women proved eager to share in the national effort. It was fortunate that at this crucial stage there was one available who could supply the necessary inspiration. During the early part of the war, Lady Baden-Powell had been very interested in urging women to take part in Scout work; but in 1915 she became Guide Commissioner for Sussex, and her success in reorganizing the County showed that she had considerable gifts of her own to bring to the Movement. In the following year she became Chief Guide Commissioner and applied on a larger scale the ability displayed in her County work.
B.-P. was naturally happy in this progress, and he set to work to rewrite the handbook for the Movement under the title Girl Guiding (1917). He was delighted when in 1918 is the Guides elected Lady Baden-Powell to the new position of Chief Guide. From that time the parallel Movement has steadily grown in strength and influence.
Innumerable problems connected with Scouting and war-service, and the general policy of the Movement, were coming to the front. There was constant need for guidance and for watchfulness. B.-P. supplied both, but never in the form of autocratic edicts. Commissioners at Headquarters would receive notes of ideas and suggestions jotted down on odd bits of paper and written at odd times, for, as he wrote to a friend, 'Whenever I get a slack moment, I get an idea'. But such notes were for discussion and consideration and not intended for unquestioned adoption --- such was not his way. He had an eager man's natural impatience of thick-headed opposition, especially if he was told that 'it is against our Rules'. On one occasion his reply was, 'Damn the Rules: call it an experiment!' and this particular suggestion proved a success, so the Rules and not the idea suffered.
An interesting example of this lack of a desire for domination is given in the following extract from a letter to Mr. P. W. Everett dated 19th September 1915.
We had a rather argumentative Headquarters Committee meeting this week. After considerable enquiry among education authorities, etc., on my recent trip, I suggested that the Committee might consider whether we might institute a badge to encourage good work at school or factory among the boys --- thus enlisting the goodwill and possible co-operation of education people, teachers, employers, etc. Personally I see a very big possibility about it if properly handled, and was rather dreaming about it, when I was awakened by a bang in the eye by being told that there were quite enough badges already, and there was no need for this one! I hadn't intended to pass it then and there, nor even a motion to abolish Headquarters Committee --- but it was received as if I had done both.
In the next paragraph he suggests that possibly the Committee wants some fresh blood!
I've told W. to send you a copy of my notes on my tour of inspection. It was all most gratifying, especially the keenness and ability of several of our workers. 1 wish we had some of them on H.Q. Committee! Or as a H.Q. Advisory Board as representatives of the work of the Provinces.
Neither of these suggestions materialized though he was always trying to find some means of making Committees more representative. He ruled out as impracticable a Committee elected by the Scoutmasters, not that he was opposed to the principle but he could not see how any scheme could be devised which would work.
Every idea he put forward was backed by reasoned argument. Here, for instance, in a letter to Mr. P. W. Everett he proposed another new badge --- this time successfully.
Bird Warden. For one thing we want an activity for country boys. They are debarred from so many Scout badges that are open to town boys, technical schoolboys and others. We want to teach natural history and kindness to animals especially to country boys through self-expression. The wardening of Birds seems a special line by which we could give the country boys a lift in this direction, and I had in my mind the appointment of boys to be Bird Wardens in their district after they had qualified by certain tests, and that a badge would be given them not so much as an award as a distinguishing badge --- say a feather in their hat or something of that sort. To the outside public this Wardenship would appeal very strongly. Also it would be a step in the direction of Nature Study which is badly needed.
It combines all four of our training aims Character (observation, kindness, etc.), Physical (open air exercise), Handcraft (nesting boxes etc.), Service (Bird Protection).
One of his war-time schemes was for a Scouts' Defence Corps to provide pre-military training. The idea was inevitably attacked by those who were eagerly on the watch for the least sign of 'blood-thirstiness' in the Movement, but it was put into practice and about 7,000 older Scouts went through the training. It was not intended as a permanent feature of the Movement, and after the war it dropped out of the scheme.
In 1917 a Conference of Scout Commissioners was held at Matlock Bath, when seventy men from all parts of the country met to discuss present problems and future prospects. Such subjects as the following were debated: 'The Patrol System', 'Senior Scouts', 'The Training of Scoutmasters', 'The Duties of Commissioners', and 'Sunday and the Scout'. This was the first of a series of such Conferences which did so much not only to get ideas ventilated but to bring the men of the Movement into closer contact with B.-P.'s invigorating personality.
One of the problems he faced was the increase in juvenile crime during the war, and he took much advice from those who seemed to him knowledgeable men. Amongst other suggestions he put forward for consideration was the use of the cinema which had become so popular during those years. He deplored the lurid nature of many of the films shown, but argued that the way to improvement was to offer something better, and urged that clubs, Scouts and other organizations should unite in showing humorous, clean stories, films of industrial processes, travel adventures and nature observation. He wrote:
Our citizens of the future have before them a tremendous campaign in the industrial and commercial competition that is coming after the war. The real victors in the great war will show themselves 10 years hence.
It is our business to train them and equip them for it if our country is to hold its own and to emerge without poverty and distress from the ruinous expense of the present war, and superior to our adversaries in moral tone.
But just at the moment when we ought to be preparing for this by utilizing what has in the past been allowed to become waste human material we are allowing our future manhood to rot away to a worse extent than ever through neglect and lack of organization.
He was a forward-looking man. There was much to be proud of in the record of those who had fought in the war --- 150,000 Scoutmasters and old Scouts served, of whom 10,000 did not return, and amongst the honours gained were eleven V.C.s. But what of the future? What part could Scouting play in developing a saner and happier world? In 1917 while there was much discussion going on about terms of peace, he wrote this note on 'Scouting as a Peace Agent'.
The Nations, disillusioned by this war, are seeking some better security for peace in the future than is conveyed in an agreement which may at any time be treated as a 'scrap of paper' by unscrupulous statesmen.
Hostages or money securities m one form or other are suggested, but apart from such material ties it appears that a development is possible in the personal sentiment of the peoples concerned, such as would itself give the best assurance of permanent peace.
The Boy Scout Movement, though on a comparatively small scale at present, yet has its branches among the boys in practically every civilized country in the world and it is growing every day. It is conceivable that if in the years to come a considerable proportion of the rising generation of citizens of each nation were members of this fraternity they would be linked by a tie of personal sympathy and understanding such as has in the past never existed, and such as would in the event of international strain or difference exert a strong influence on its solution.
The future citizens of the different countries, through being Boy Scouts together, would be habituated to the idea of settling their mutual differences by friendly means.
They would view the situation in terms of peace and not, as heretofore, in terms of war.
To some, that seemed an idle dream, but it is no exaggeration to say that he devoted the rest of his life to its realization.