[English] COLOURED BOYS AS SCOUTS Lord Baden-Powell On New Scheme

COLOURED BOYS AS SCOUTS

Lord Baden-Powell On New Scheme

Southampton, May 27.

Lord Baden-Powell arrived at Southampton to-day after a long oversea tour. Both he and Lady Baden-Powell seemed to have recovered completely from the attack of malaria which caused much discomfort in East Africa and prevented them from visiting Nigeria, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone.

In a statement concerning his tour the Chief Scout said:-

In addition to such isolated places as St. Helena and the Canaries we visited Scouts in Egypt, the Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Mozambique, the Union of South Africa, and Southern and Northern Rhodesia. Thus we were able to see how Scouting reacted not only on the boys of European descent but also on native races and tribes of widely differing nationalities.

We had two main objectives, the first the Jamboree of Scouts of the Union at East London. This brought boys together, both British and Dutch, not only from all parts of the Union but also from neighbouring States such as Southern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa. A new departure has been made in the Union, where hitherto the colour bar has stood in the way of admitting coloured boys into the movement. The Council of the Boy Scouts' Association, in consultation with those interested in the education and status of the coloured inhabitants, has set up a federation of Scout organizations respectively for native boys and Indians. These associations will be separate from one another and self-administering under the general control of the Boy Scout Council. The white Scouts in the Union number some 14,000 and the coloured in the federation about 10,000, and are rapidly growing. We only need more Scout-trained men to take them in hand. The Girl Guides Association has formed parallel movements for native and Indian girls.

Lord Baden-Powell added that it had been stated by one director of education that the Scout training has done more for the education of the native in the last five years than other methods have done in the last 40. The Scout training goes far to replace the former tribal discipline, which was largely administered through fear, by the discipline of games, which promote the team spirit and sense of duty. A noticeable feature everywhere was the good will of the white people to the Old Country and the universal sense of loyalty to the King on the part of the natives.

Source:

1. Page 8, "Hong Kong Daily Press", Thursday, 11th June, 25th Year of the Republic of China

   • 22nd Day, 4th Lunar Month, Bing-zi Year

   • Thursday, 11th June, 1936 Common Era