Hongkong Daily Press.
Hongkong, Monday, January 20, 1941.
英壹千玖佰肆拾壹年壹月弍拾日
No. 25702
第弍萬伍仟柒佰零弍號
Page 5
DEAN WILSON AND REV. FR. BYRNE PAY TRIBUTE TO LATE CHIEF SCOUT
Memorial Services Held At Two Cathedrals
"We meet here today to thank God for the life and work of one of His servants who has fought a good fight, and who has finished his course," said the Very Rev. J.L.Wilson, M.A., in the course of his address at the Memorial service held at St. John's Cathedral yesterday, for the late Chief Scout, LIEUT. GENERAL LORD BADEN POWELL OF GILWELL, O.M., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.G.S., who died in his 83rd year at Nyeri, Kenya, on Jan. 8.
Representatives from all Rover Scouts, Boy Scouts, Sea Scouts, and Girl Guides troops, and Wolf Cubs packs - with the exception of those of the Roman Catholic faith who attended a similar service at the Catholic Cathedral - were present under their respective leaders.
His Excellency the Acting Governor, Lieut. Gen. E.F.Norton, accompanied by Capt. S.H.Batty Smith, A.D.C., Major C.Champkin (Deputy Commissioner), Mr. G.S.P.Heywood (Asst. Commissioner of Rovers), Mr. D.A.Pockson (Asst. Commissioner and Hon. Secretary, Boy Scouts' Association), Mrs. J.W.Bucknell (Asst. Colony Commissioner, Girl Guides' Association), Mrs. F.E.E.Booker (Asst. Commissioner of Wolf Cubs), Hon. Sir Robert Kotewall, Hon. Mr. W.N.Thomas Tam, Mr. G.A.Goodban (Headmaster, Diocesan Boys' School) and the Rev. George May, were among those present.
GREATEST MEN
Referring to the life of Lord Baden Powell, Dean Wilson said that the late Chief Scout was one of the world's greatest men. He founded a movement which will go on and on, not lacking the usual momentum so often seen in other movements which die when the founder is dead.
Lord Baden Powell's movement was founded on the ideals of love, righteousness, and truth. His ambition was to set the world right - his courage was unbounded.
Truth, said the speaker, is a sacred thing but leaders of nations, and men in all ranks, will lie with ease. Friendship is a sacred thing but men will break it for their own gains. Peace and justice are sacred things, but leaders of men will sweep them aside for their own ends.
The Boy Scouts movement, and the Girl Guides movement, hold truth, friendship, and justice as their ideals. These movements are gaining in momentum - gaining force - towards the attainment of peace and justice in the world.
REAL VALUE
Dean Wilson then read a letter from the late Chief Scout, written after the death of his mother, wherein he acknowledged his debt to her for all she had done for him, and exhorting all his Scouts to fully appreciate the real value of a mother. Lord Baden Powell stated that it is a calamity to lose one's mother, but it is a greater calamity for a mother to lose her son - not in death but through his becoming a waster and a good for nothing. The trouble she took to bring the son up, her loving care and attention during his childhood, her sorrows and pains, are all set at naught by such a son.
The Dean said that if the Scouts and Guides found some joy, some pleasure, a new meaning in life, they owed it all to their beloved leader, Lord Baden Powell.
In conclusion, the speaker said, "May his soul rest in peace, and may his work go on forever and ever in the hearts of boys and girls all over the world."
After His Excellency had read the special Lesson, from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians (Chap. VI, 10-18) the Scouts and Guides present renewed their Promise, made at the time of their admittance into the movement.
CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL
The Rev. Fr. George Byrne, S.J., President of the Catholic Boy Scouts, officiated at the Memorial service held at the Catholic Cathedral yesterday, when representatives from the 5th, 6th, and 7th Girl Guide troops, and the 1st, 2nd, 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th, and 17th troops of Boy Scouts, and members of the Sea Scouts, and Wolf Cubs, under their leaders, gathered to pay tribute to the memory of their great Chief.
In the course of his address, Fr. Byrne referred to Lord Baden Powell as "a man of genius" whose genius "impressed himself on the absent as if he was present, and who managed, in no small way to mould the eager young lives of those whom he had never seen."
SPIRITUAL IDEAL
"His setting," went on the speaker, "was the life of the backwoodsman: camps, kits, wolves, packs, cubs, story telling when the sun went down, and underneath it all the spiritual ideal which made of the mediaeval knight the champion of chivalry-" true to God and to the King." He formed habits of honour, chivalry, service, faith."
"Lord Baden Powell, as a soldier, may have followed a path of glory, as Chief Scout he followed a path of goodness. As we kneel today at this Memorial service, we pray, as the Church prays, that "his work may follow him."