The China Mail.
Hongkong, Thursday, February 10, 1927.
No. 20,030
Page 7
OUR SCOUTS.
RECOGNITION OF HELP IN EMERGENCIES.
GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS.
The local Boy Scouts were reviewed yesterday in the grounds of Government House by H.E. the Governor, Sir Cecil Clementi, Chief Scout of the Colony.
The review was made the occasion of the presentation to the 20th Troop of the Prince of Wales' banner for the most efficient troop during the past year.
Letters of commendation were presented to the 19th (1st Yaumatei) troop for services rendered in the apprehension of a bag snatcher and to the 20th (1st Central) troop for services rendered the police and Fire Brigade on fire outbreaks. When assembled at the Government House on Tuesday last they had been instrumental in putting out a fire which started in the grounds.
The Hon. Dr. R.H.Kotewall having been enlisted as a joining member of the local Scout Movement and sworn in as President by Commissioner Waldegrave, he in turn presented H.E. the Governor with the Badge of Chief Scout.
His Excellency then addressing the parade said:
"Not Disguised Militarism."
I am glad to see so good a muster of you here this afternoon and I have noted with much pleasure your smart and workmanlike appearance and your good discipline. l especially congratulate the 20th Troop on winning the Prince of Wales' banner. Unhappily there are ill disposed people who, observing your smartness on parade and your good discipline, exclaim that the Boy Scout movement is only disguised militarism and who pretend to believe that our real aim is to make soldiers of you. There is no shred of truth in such an insinuation. The aim of the Boy Scout movement, looked at from the widest point of view, is to form a brotherhood of boys of all races, nations and creeds in the hope that, when these boys grow to manhood, the brotherhood of boys will pass naturally into a worldwide brotherhood of men. Looked at from the point of view of the individual boy the aim of the Boy Scout movement is to make men of you - chivalrous, upright, resourceful, law abiding men.
Discipline.
Discipline is one of the means by which these things are taught. Discipline is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace. It should mean that in all your acts you are fully conscious that you form part of a troop, an association, a worldwide brotherhood, and that each of you will subordinate at all times his individual aims and ambition to the welfare of the whole fellowship to which he belongs. This is the way in which useful citizens of a country and of the commonwealth of all countries can be made; and this is the ideal which the Boy Scout movement strives to realise. Never forget this and let this ideal inspire your work both as boys and when you become men.
The Hon. Dr. Kotewall expressed thanks to His Excellency for making the presentations and also for the deep interest he had always shown in the movement. He, in turn, endorsed His Excellency's remarks with regard to the smart and workmanlike turn out of the Scouts present. He corroborated what their Chief Scout had said about the movement, laying stress on the need for discipline in daily life. The Scouts should not forget that there was no truth in the assertion that they were a military body; they were neither military nor political and he himself would take no part in the movement, if he were not certain that it had an undoubted use. Discipline was an essential in life and the Scouts were not banded together merely for the playing of games, as His Excellency had pointed out on previous occasions, but to play the game of life. In conclusion, Dr. Kotewall expressed his great pleasure at being enrolled as one of them.
The Rev. Waldegrave then presented warrants as Scoutmasters to Assistant Scoutmasters Roberts and Laveson Gower, after which cheers were called for the Chief Scout, His Excellency Sir Cecil Clementi; the newly appointed Presidents, Dr. Kotewall; and Lady Clementi as President of the Girl Guides.