Boy Scout Visitors From P.I.

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   Carrying the national colours of their country for the first time, a delegation of Boy Scouts from the Philippines, en route to the Scouts Sixth World Jamboree in Moisson, is at present sightseeing in Hong Kong until the "Empress of Scotland" leaves next week.

   The delegation comprises 34 members, two of whom arrived here by air yesterday.
   The group is headed by the Philippines Chief Scout Executive, Exequiel Villacorta, assisted by Alfredo de los Reyes, Aide and Quartermaster. The present trip abroad is the first since the war ended.
   Exequiel Villacorta told the "China Mail" yesterday that the Scouts felt very proud to be carrying their own national colours this time. On previous occasions they carried the American flag. At present there are some 92,000 Boy Scouts in the Philippines.
   The Philippines Chief Scout Executive, who led a similar delegation to Washington in 1935, said that during the war the Boys Scouts, as an institution, was inactive as the Japanese frowned on the movement. Boy Scouts, however, assisted the guerillas against the Japanese.
   Boy Scouts also helped the American forces when the liberation of the Philippines was in progress. On one occasion, a single Boy Scout was responsible for saving an entire town by signalling to the attacking American warships the positions of the Japanese who had moved out of the town which the Americans were shelling.
   Villacorta said several Boy Scouts lost their lives trying to save civilians from bomb and shell attacks. Although the Philippines Boy Scouts was officially organised in 1923, they were active as early in 1914, when they participated in the First World War.
   On Sunday, the Philippine Boy Scouts Delegation will give an exhibition of Philippine national dances and songs at the Filipino Club in King's Park.
   The Delegation includes the following:
   Exequiel Villacorta (Chief Scout Executive and Head of Philippine Jamboree Contingent); Alfredo de los Reyes (Aide and Quartermaster); Gerardo Flores (Scoutmaster Jamboree Troop); Dr. Manuel D.Navarro (A.S.M. & Troop Physician); Jose Lumontod (Asst. Scout Master); Plaridel Silvestre (Senior Patrol Leader); Roque Ablan Jr. Rodolfo Alonzo (Asst. Patrol Leader); Pedro Basillo; Roberto Betia; Joaquin R.Cantos; Benjamin Cordova (Patrol Leader); Catalino Espino; Vleente Feria (Asst. Patrol Leader); Alfredo Flojo; Benjamin De da Fuente (Patrol Leader); Santiago Guevarra, (Asst. Patrol Leader); Antonio Habana (Patrol Leader); Vicente Javelosa; Leonardo Marino; Romeo Murillo; Nemeslo Orito; Fausto Perante; Epifanio Raymundo; Antonio Abaya; Jose Rebaya; Ivo Salngan; Taib Sampang; Florentino Sanil; Samuel Sibayan; Ramon Umali; Alfredo Vidal; Aqulleo Villanueva.