"BOY'S LEAGUE OF NATIONS"
Support For Scout Movement Urged.
REV. WALDEGRAVE'S SPEECH

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   An appeal to the Y's' Men's Club to help to foster the Boy Scout Movement was made during an address given by the Rev. G.T.Waldegrave, M.A., Commissioner of the Scouting movement in Hong Kong, at the weekly tiffin of the "Y's" Men's Club at Lane, Crawford's restaurant yesterday.
   During his address the speaker described the aims and object of the movement, and stated that it had been termed, the "Boys League of Nations."
   Commencing his speech, the Commissioner said he appreciated the opportunity of speaking of the movement, especially as he found that generally speaking there was some haziness as to their aims and object. Therefore he planned to give a brief resume from the official organ of rules. One of the principal objects was to develop good citizenship among boys. Boys not of the British Empire, were bound as feasible citizens, to stick to the rules of the scouting movement, and as long as they were guests in a British Colony it was a matter of courtesy to be obedient and loyal.

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High Ideals

   As regarded God it was the promise of the Scout to live up to the highest ideals within him, whatever God he believed in. The speaker then touched briefly on the oath taken by Chinese scouts.
   Regarding the organization of the movement, he said that it was governed by the Head Council in London. There were 42 countries, all under the International Bureau, but unfortunately, China was not linked up to the Bureau at present. He anticipated that the matter would, however, soon be rectified.
   After commenting on the local officers and the various sections of the movement, the speaker said that the Chief Scout, Lord Baden Powell of Gilwell, noticed that boys worked and played in gangs. That was in 1908, and the Chief Scout devised plans to make those cliques of some use, to find the leading boy and make him the leader of the particular clique, and the next leading boy a kind of lieutenant, who at the present time was called the Patrol second. The rest of the boys were formed into the body of the patrol and that is how the system of patrols had originated. The speaker described them as knights going forth to right wrong in the world. They had the same system and spirit.

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Court of Honour

   Regarding the rules, the speaker continued, these were drawn up by a Court of Honour, and it is the aim of all leaders to get their men to follow the rules. That was the only way of running a scout troop he said, for if one man drew up the rules, there would be discontent, and would ultimately result in the smashing up of the troop.
   Chinese boys he continued, learn excessively quickly, and generally they learnt just enough to pass their badges. This was wrong, for badges were an incentive to learn more, but in fairness to the Chinese boys, they developed very well as scouts.
   In the Colony, he said, there were four British troops, six mixed troops and 12 Chinese troops. Out of the 22 troops, twelve were school units. It had been found out here that the Chinese were splendid material and extraordinarily responsive. By saying this however, he did not wish to convey anything detrimental to the foreign boys, who were living in a foreign climate and in foreign conditions.

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Proof of Value

   Pointing out a few proofs of the value of scouting to those about to embark on a career, the speaker said that one of his sea scouts had recently gained second place in a marine examination of the Chinese Maritime Customs. The examination had been for 20 vacancies, and there had been 500 entrants. He also quoted other cases where scouts had been successful in examinations, and stated that they had all expressed their gratitude to the training received in the scouting movement, to which they held that success was mainly due. There was no doubt that scouting was of definite use in the battle of life, and it also had a definite application to the manner of living.
   In concluding, he appealed to the members of the "Y's" Men's Club, to consider seriously the finding of some means to help what is known the "Boy's League of Nations."