Boy Scout Movement.

   Hongkong is keenly interested in the Boy Scout movement, and for that reason the recent appeal of the Chief Scout, General Sir R.Baden-Powell, for a quarter of a million sterling for a permanent Endowment Fund, should find some measure of support in the Colony. It is realised that the work of the Scoutmasters in the past has been magnificent, but it is perceived that where there is no organised training divergencies of system are bound to creep in . If the scheme meets with the support it deserves it is proposed to give some training in Scout ideals both to boys who are below the present age limits and to young men and lads who are above them. The plan, we observe, is to start work for senior Scouts over 18 and to give them a helping hand at the most critical time of their lives, and it is also proposed to institute, under the most careful safeguards, a branch of junior Scouts between the ages of 9 and 11.

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Some Sound Schemes.

   This is not the extent of the new suggestions. For instance it is desired to develop Scouting in the slums of great cities, and here lies a great opening since the inculcation of doctrines of good citizenship in the very nurseries of hooliganism is bound to have a wholesome effect. Another good point is that it proposed to provide boys with careers as well as characters, and here the establishment of a farm on Scout principles, where lads may acquire knowledge of a practical kind, presents grand opportunities. The whole of the new movement is altogether admirable, and it gives the best possible answer to those carping critics who have never tired of placing obstacles in the way of the Boy Scouts on the ground that it is purely a military body.