Hongkong Daily Press.
Hongkong, Friday, April 13th, 1923.
中華民國十二年四月十三號 禮拜五
癸亥年二月廿八日
No. 20,218
第二萬零二百十八號
Page 4
BOY SCOUT ACTIVITIES IN HONGKONG.
The Boy Scouts' Jamboree will consist of an exhibition and a concert, both to take place on Friday and Saturday next. On Friday, proceedings will commence in the City Hall at 4 p.m., when H.E. the Chief Scout of Hongkong will declare the Jamboree open. All the rooms in the first floor will be in use. In St. Andrew's Hall will be the Exhibition proper, where specimens of Scout handcraft will be on view, and the Scouts themselves will be seen at work. St. George's Hall is to be used as an arena in which a succession of displays will be performed, the principal one being the construction of a 24ft. trestle bridge by a squad of Scouts drawn from the several troops and trained by Staff Sergeant Best of the R.E.’s. On Saturday the show will commence at 2.30 p.m., and on both nights this part of the Jamboree will close at 7 p.m. In addition to the displays in the arena on Saturday afternoon, the 6th Hongkong Troop will perform a Scout play in Chinese, which has been written by one of the Chinese Scoutmasters. The small room opening off St. George's Hall will be devoted to Nature Study and Artist section, where a very interesting collection of Hongkong butterflies, moths, etc., made by the "Roving Fifth" will be on view. Admission to the Exhibition will be free, though a small charge will be made for the Chinese play. Tea will be obtainable at moderate charges in the Chamber of Commerce Room.
On both nights, a Grand Concent will be held in the Theatre Royal at 9.15 p.m. Several interesting and amusing items are on the programme, not least of which is an ultra-modern version of Shakespeare's "Tempest."
There are about 200 Scouts in the Colony on the books of the various troops, of whom about 150 are really actively and regularly spending their spare time in Scouting. There are at present eight troops and one patrol of Sea Scouts, and shortly two other troops will be in process of formation. Three out of 27 gilt crosses awarded for plucky and meritorious conduct in 1922 were won by Hongkong Scouts, all three recipients being Chinese boys. In each case the boy's actions were entirely the result of Scout training, added to the "heart" to put that training into use. Ten days ago a party of five Chinese Scouts set out from Hongkong to visit some scouts not belonging to this Association who live on the mainland north of Macao. They left Macao at 6 a.m. and without a map reached their destination at 4 p.m., having walked the whole way. The same weekend, a party from another troop started on a trek-camp in the New Territories, and pitched their tents where the Smugglers' Pass joins Pineapple Pass. The next morning several of them walked over very rough country along the Shing Mun Valley to Shatin in order to get back to Hongkong for a rehearsal in the afternoon, which they attended, returning to their camp that same evening. Boys who formerly never left the City streets are now finding out the joys of exploration and the beauties of the country in which they live, and it is in order that this pleasure may be afforded to others that your support of this sane and healthy movement is requested.