Cover Story

The cover of this Black Paper demonstrates more clearly than words the result of

total inflexibility in progressive planning.

John Hilsdon has served Scouting all his life not far from the Elephant and Castle

in London S.E.1. Despite the fact that there is no replacement available, nor

could any replacement maintain the standards of courtesy and idealism that pre-

APR Scouting insisted on, John and his troop of eight different nationalities

have been dismissed the Scout movement. Why? Because John is 65. The rules

say a Scouter must retire at that age, and as we all know, to progressive planners

RULES are more important than people.

Illustrations - P. Joubert© FSE Paris.

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ContentsThe Disciple

Comment

Fundamental Matters Dr. G.H. Tattersall M.Sc., Ph.D., F.lnst.P.,(Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield)

Press I

One Scouter's View J.B. Tooley, M.A., F.L.A.

Press IJ

Socialisation - A Key Factor I.C. Faulds(Dept of Social Theory and Administration,University of Durham.)

Leader's Views

Venture Scouting Re-assessed G.J. Davies

On being up-to-date f.E. Reynolds(Former Editor of 'Jamboree')

The Lads Speak

B.P. Overboard Major C.F. I. (Jock) Neish, O.B.E., D.L., J.P.('Jock' has held numerous appointments in Scotland, amongstwhich have been SHO Commissioner for Rovers, and SHOCommissioner for Training and Deputy Camp Chief)

Census comment

Appendix: The Angus Referendum.

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The Disciple

He that hath a GospelTo loose upon mankind,

Though he serve it utterly-Body, soul and mind-

Though he go to CalvaryDaily for its gain-

It is His DiscipleShall make His labour vain.

He that hath a Gospel,For all the earth to own-

Though he etch it on the steel,Or carve it on the stone-

Not to be misdoubtedThrough the after days-

It is His DiscipleShall read it many ways.

It is His Disciple(Ere Those Bones are dust)

Who shall change the CharterWho shall split the Trust-

Amplify distinctions,Rationalise the Claim,

Preaching that the MasterWould have done the same.

It is His DiscipleWho shall tell us how .

Much the Master would have scrappedHad He lived till now-

What he would have modifiedOf what He said before-

It is His DiscipleShall do this and more .....

He that hath a GospelWhereby Heaven is won

(Carpenter or CamleerOr Maya's dreaming son)

Many swords shall pierce HimMingling Blood with gall;

But His own DiscipleShall wound Him worst of all.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Rudyard Kiplingin

"Limits and Renewals"

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Comment

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This paper affords the opportunity to express, withoutfear or favour, the views of Leaders of varying agesand serviceto Scouting; their true beliefs and feelings, to the movementand the general public alike.

One of the most disturbing trends in the Scout Associationhas already been referred to in 'Time and Tide'. This is thetendency to sneer and castigate those who hold contraryviews to themselves. A re-reading of E.E. Reynold's reporting.on the 1941 Post-WarCommission may be applicable here.

One thing we share with those members of the ChiefScout's Advance Party is a great regard for the Boy Scoutmovement in this country. We have given of our time, and ofour effort, asmuch as most, and in many cases, even more so.If we are forced to make our approach in this way it is onlybfJcausethe channels of communication within our own move-ment are blocked.

Few' of us can recall 1907, since most were then not yetborn. But we do not live in a blinkered world wherein there isbut one path of progress, and one alone. Are we seriously tocontend that the road sketched out by the Advance Partymembers is the only path to successful Scouting? And is thispath so sacrosant that none may dispute it, except at theirPWil?

If we really want the Boy Scouts to be a mature organ-isation, with balanced individuals and competent adminis-trators, we must allow dissent and diversion from just onenarrow path. This is a most individualistic country, and partof its strength - if perhaps its weakness - is its freedom toexpress its beliefs and faiths freely. As part of that Society itbehoves the Scout movement to act in accord.

Various jibes have been made by different Scouting per-sonalities that we are against all change, or acidy old boys,violently left-wing, or reactionary right-wingers etc. Naturallyany dissident body must use what weapons are to hand toexploit the maximum publicity for its propagation. In thefinal analysis we are simply one thing - very pro-Boy Scoutand anxious that the species may continue.

The Boy Scout movement in this country has been con-stantly evolving. It has never been a static entity. It has seenhard times - much harder than it encounters today. It hassurmounted many splits, rebel factions, and inner storms.Through them all it has managed, until now, to retain theessentials of the spirit of the Founder. Yet this failure tocreate original and stimulating scouting, which still carries

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the original spirit of B.P. into the space age, is the root of theargument. It is not the need for change that is disputed, butthe method of change, and the skill with which the spirit ofscouting is retained in modernisation. That spirit has taken adisastrous rubbing in the .current re-vamping.

Yet one can still ask whether the changes are adequate. Is itreally necessary to have a large administrative block inLondon? Are all those camp sites being used to advantage?Is much of the paper work in H.O. superfluous? There is apowerful argument to restore the status of the group as thekey unit in Scouting and reduce the official interference byDistrict and H.O. officials. It is one of the paradoxes of avoluntary organisation that whilst a measure of autocracy hasmuch to recommend it in many places, it is a little difficultto operate where money is not paid BY, but TO, theproponents of that autocracy.

That there has been a rise in administrative officiousnesscan not be denied. Somewhere along the line, the role ofCommissioner as adviser has been translated as that of LordHigh Executioner. This is surely at the base of much of thetrouble. Yet H.D. today, especially via the sneers of its Wyldsand such ilk, cannot escape the inevitable responsibility.

With this Boy Scout Black Paper all the objectives of theScout Action Group have been fulfilled. The aims of thisessocietion were to seek and assess nationwide scout opinionconcerning the AP.R. and to encourage H.D. to re-thinksuch areas as necessary. These primary aims have been morethan amply fulfilled in just nine months, with no outsidesubsidies, but with the warm and friendly assistance ofdozens of leaders in the movement. We have travelled manymiles, and met, in their own homes and troop halls, all kindsof brother Scouts from all types of troops. In every casethere has been a common thread that has linked their feelingswith ours.

To deny that these people should have any other belief butthat promulgated by Scout H.D., and their advisers, is perhapsthe greatest obstacle to progress in the movement today.

During our brief, but very active campaign, we met andtalked to most of the 'big' names in Scouting. Apart fromCol. Wilson, who regrettably has passed on, we may mentionno names. Suffice to say however, that we met sympathyand sincerity in their frank talks with us, and in very many,if not all cases, a general agreement. On the other hand theyfelt powerless to help us. One could not help recalling thesuperb description of the German General Staff in 1938 inWheeler-Bennett's book "The Nemesis of Power". A verysobering thought!

We are completely satisfied from our researches, that themovement was never consulted ABOUT THE CHANGES,that there has been CENSORSHIP and thet, at least threestatements in the Scouter by the Chief ExecutiveCommissioner have been quite untrue.

One final point we should like to make. Much is said ofthe Press and T.V. and general communication fields these

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days. It is either biased one way or another, it is not interestedin other than sex or sordid affairs etc. May we say that what-ever views we felt before our campaign about this matter, wetoday, have nothing but admiration for them. Without theirassistance, we could never haveachieved what we set out to do.They were genuine, sincere, and full of assistance. This doesnot mean that the Press and T. V. can be used like anextension of the postal circular. They knew when a !Jooly'was being bowled their way, and they knew what to leaveout when some enthusiastic supporter unwound too far.They areprofessionals. They know their business.So today, actually in those much referred to Seventies,

we offer you this collection of views and reviews which wecould not publicise by any other means.

In this regard, we feel that our (oyalty to the Founder andhis teachings must take precedence over any feelings ofloyalty to the present Scout administration.

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G H TATTERSALL

Fundamental Matters

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Perhaps the. most remarkable thing aboutthe Advance Party Report is, that in thisdocument that purports to deal with thewhole future of Scouting, there is almostno discussion of the aims of the Movement,

. and there is no statement of the basicprinciples on which progress and develop-ment are to be built. Out of a total of 522pages a mere 7% are given to 'FundamentalMatters', and in these pages 'ReligiousPolicy' receives almost exactly the sameamount of space as the discussion on whet-her we should be known as 'Boy Scouts' oras 'Scouts'. It may be too harsh a judge-ment to suggest that the Advance Party,which prepared the Report, and the Com-mittee of Council, which accepted it al-most without amendment, are not them-selves clear about these fundamental mat-ters, but one may be forgiven for sus-pecting that. At least it can be statedcategorically that however clear theirvision, they have certainly failed to com-. municate it to others, so that their Reportappears as a catalogue of topics arbitrarilyselected and arbitrarily determined. Analmost inevitable corollary is that many ofthe recommendations, instead of contrib-uting to what some of us thought were theaims of Scouting, actually operate in theopposite direction.

None will quarrel with the AdvanceParty's restatement of the Aims as being'to encourage the physical, mental andspiritual development of young people sothat they may take a constructive pl-ace in society', but this statement canhardly be regarded as sufficient withoutfurther discussion of its meaning, and acareful consideration of the relation be-tween the aims and present day society.

The state of society, and its effect onyoung people, can conveniently be con-sidered under the three headings mentionedin the statement of Aims, i.e. mental,physical, and spiritual, although of coursea complete separation cannot be made inpractice. With reference to mental develop-ment, Scouting in its early days had tocontend with illiteracy (ability to. read wasa test for First Class Scout), a schoolleaving age of 13 with children on half-time work at earlier ages, and general lackof opportunity for even a decent secondaryeducation. Today, the school leaving age is15, shortly to be raised to 16, higher orfurther education is available to all who

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can benefit from it, and day release foryoung employees is the norm; on the debitside there is a very great pressure on youngpeople to try for academic success, irres-pective of whether this is the best thingfor them or for the nation. With referenceto physical development, early Scoutinghad to take account of bad housing, badsocial conditions and poverty, whi Ie today,most people are materially well off andliving in good houses, there is an almostall embracing National Health Service,there are ample opportunities for sportsand other physical activities, and youngpeople are often able to travel. Thus, inboth these categories there have beenmajor changes that most observers wouldclass as improvements, but approval wouldnot be nearly so unanimous for the changesthat affect spiritual development. Duringthe last fifty or sixty years the influenceof the Church has markedly decreased,Britain has changed from a strong andinfluential nation to one with weak leader-ship and no real purpose, a rigid moral codehas gone beyond a state of relaxation toone of permissiveness, and some wouldsay licentiousness, there are colossal pres-sures to enforce conformity, and bureau-cracy and organisation are reducing theindividual to a cipher and crushing thedignity of the person.

It seems to me to be abundantly clearthat there is now no pressing need forScouting to be very much concerned withmental and physical development per se,but a very great and urgent need for it tobe desperately concerned about spiritualdevelopment. This is where the Reportfails; it concentrates on the mental 'andthe physical at the expense of the spiritual.It proposes the provision of expensivefacilities that are already provided by theState and other bodies, and it puts for-ward a badge system that seems as com-plicated as the other examination systemswith which the young are expected tocomply. At the same time, where it takesaccount explicitly of the pressures towhich the young are exposed, it yields tothem, as for example in its concern aboutour public image, and where it fails to con-sider them explicitly, it increases them bysetting up a vast and unwieldy bureau-cracy.

Revision of the Report to get the prior-ities right is therefore essential if Scouting

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is to have any hope at all of fulfilling itsfunction. The fight is on the spiritual frontand all the rest is important.only in so faras it affects that fight. The urgent need inScouting is threefold:- to re-establish theidealistic basis of the Movement; to pro-vide a strong sense of purpose foundedon the ideals; and to promote a knowledgeof the importance of the individual.

The Report is to be commended in itsproposals to establish closer links with theChurches and to emphasise the necessityof religious affiliation of Scouters, but itmore than counteracts these by eliminatingthe Rover Vigil and Investiture, thus re-moving the greatest expression of theiridealism that was open to many youngmen. The absence of the Rover ideal ofself sacrificing service creates a gap thatcannot be filled by the complicatedVenture Scout system, and it is not toostrong to say that some Groups will findthat without.. the culmination providedby the Rover Investiture, much of therest of Scouting becomes pointless. Con-sideration of the individual takes severeblows from the proposals concerning theautomatic closure of Troops, the com-plicated and inflexible' badge system, thedisappearance of individual Group uni-forms, and the restrictions on the wearingofthe Group scarf. Loyalty to a small unitprovides a means by wh ich a boy can beled to develop his own individuality to thefull, but we are expected to build Troopswhose minimum size is what B.P. thoughtshould be a maximum, pass young men onto large District .units, and generally tosubmerge their interests in a conformityto rules made by a central organisation.

The Report recognises that Scoutingis an outdoor movement and proposesmore activities of this nature, then, in-credibly, it seeks to impose a uniform thatis quite unsuitable for any of these ac-tivities and which is radically differentfrom the traditional dress of Scouts. Thoseproponents of the Report who have reliedon the use of the term 'traditionalist' as asmear label to attach to those who opposethem, will seize on the use of the word

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'traditional' here, but they would do wellto reflect on the consequences of thewholesale abandoning of practices thathave developed over a long time. Scoutingis now over sixty years old and the wellknown uniforms, the First Class badge, theCourt of Honour, and, above all the tenScout Laws, help to form Iinks betweenthree generations. It would be a rash manwho d ism issed th is as of no importance,and reasons to justify disposing of thesethings will have to be a lot better thanthose given in the Report.

Of course there are good ideas in theReport but I hope I have shown that thereis sufficient that is wrong in it to justifythe undertaking of a major revision. It willbe a test of the quality of the leadershipof the Movement to see whether those whoaccepted the so-called 'new look' and haveso far sought to impose it without dis-cussion, can accept that they might bewrong and that they might have been des-troying things of great value. They wouldalso be wise to contemplate the simple,though often inconvenient, fact, that noadministrative decisions, however ruth-lessly applied, can suppress beliefs foundedon idealism and tradition.

A major revision will of course be alengthy process so for immediate practicalaction I suggest the following:1) Restore the Group as the important

unit in Scouting and remove the threat ofautomatic sanctions.2) Restore the Rover Scout section with

its Vigil and Investiture and its ideal ofService.3) Restore the traditional uniform, at

least as a recognised option.4) Restore those simple traditional us-

ages that link a boy in Scouting with hisfather.and his grandfather.

Finally I if the necessity for revision,which I believe is essential, is accepted, letthose who carry it out rem.ember thatScouting is supposed to be fun. It may bea trite statement, but it is nevertheless true,that the greatest fun is found in the simpleand uncornpt icated.

[§[§[§[§[§[§[§[§[§[§[§[§(§by G. H. Tattersall

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Press I

When / was asked by Lord Rowallan to take his job, I hesitated. Was I really tolead a Movement with, in many quarters, an image of a boy lighting a fire with onematch instead of two, and being led by a lot of music-hall Scoutmasters? This of course,I was soon to discover was indeed a poor and inaccurate image of the movement, butit was an image! And what an image!

I say all this and risk offending many. I know I risk offending those who havegrown up with Scouting. I take this risk in both hands.

The Chief ScoutWaldorf Hotel, 9th June, 1966

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"Alfred Hurll, The Chief Executive Commissioner sees the movement as young andprogressive. The largest increase in membership is in the pop-inflicted 15 to 18 agegroup, and he is confident the movement can make the million by 1975. "

From The Sun, 16th April, 1966

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And after the Advance Party had been implemented, and after the wholesale lossesin the pop-inflicted age group, the Chief Scout said - '1am convinced that we are inbusiness to assist in the production of characters of quality and not just dwell on anever-increasing quantity of the mediocre. "

The Times, 1st October, 1968

'Says Ken Stevens, "When we made long trousers optional only a relatively fewtroops decided they liked them. They were quick to switch to the beret. The jobahead is to sweep away the Boer War image of Scouting. Baden-Powell would hardlyapprove, but the emphasis is expected to fall on Senior Scouting. " ,

Again from The Sun, 16th April, 1966

"I am quite sure that Baden-Powell had he been alive would not have objected at allto the changes. "

And H. Wyld of the Scout Association inWest Ham Independent, January, 1970.

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ttl used to write a Boy Scout column when I was a young reporter on the Hull DailyMail. From that, and my earlier visits to my cousin's troop which won the BritishEmpire Championship, J admired the principles of Robert Baden-Powell, the founderof the Boy Scouts. He believed in decency and helpfulness, in the healthy outdoors; hewas against military formation, although he had been a brilliant if individual soldier;he taught generations of boys throughout the world to be happy .and healthy andto grow into good men.

In my column I used to try to enlighten leaders who' did not understand Baden-Powell's ideas.

Recently the Boy Scouts were 'modernised' and some leaders think the attempts tobe 'with it'jettison some of the Chief Scout's ideals. They met in London last Saturday,Mr. Harold Wyld, representing the Scout Association, went to the meeting and after-wards made a sneering comment to reporters, using the 'with-it' jargon 'non-event'.He, for one, should find out what Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts were all about. "

William J. Brittain in Time & Tide, 15-21 January 1970

"Some of the changes have been in the direction of making the pastime of Scoutinga lively competitor with scooter clubs, youth gangs and such-like activities. Muchprogress has been made in organising boating, gliding, climbing, forestry and otherattractions just for this purpose, There is nothing inherently wrong in this. Where therub lies for many is in the structural changes in the movement and the adjustment ofpersonal attitudes which these entail. This is a real problem, particularly in this sort ofmovement where the enthusiasm of the leaders and activists is associated with givenideas, forms and ceremonies. It is easy to underestimate the danger of an abrupt breakwith a continuous and living tradition. "

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~IDaily Telegraph, 30th September, 1968

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~ B TOOLEYOne Scouter'sWhen I came to .Scoutinq as an ASM in1962, I had not previously been aware asa member of the public, that I was joininga movement which considered itself to be"square", hide-bound by tradition and inimminent peril of extinction. Like manyyoung adults, I had considered voluntaryservice of various kinds and it was the,superficial perhaps, but significant featuresof the accent on open air life and thecolourful uniform which tipped the bal-ance in favour of Scouting. When I laterfound that the APR played down both ofthese aspects, I wondered whether, in thelight of my own experience, anyone hadlooked into their power as an attractionas well as a deterrent.

Within a year or two of this beginning,we heard of the Advance Party throughthe columns of the Scouter, but, in theearly stages it was to us just another faraway committee in London "of whichwe knew little". My own group, in aSouth coast resort, had been in existencesince 1927 and was enjoying lusty lifewith a large Cub pack, Scouts, and en-thusiastic Seniors and Rovers. Older boyswere difficult to retain, but mostly because'of the exigencies of homework or employ-ment, always a problem in a holidaytown, and many left with genuine regret.Staff was usually sparse, but adequate witha core of experienced Wood Badge holders,an HQ was being actively planned, a per-manent campsite was established within afew miles of the town and summer campswere held in Scotland, Holland and Ireland.So far as I could see from attendance atDistrict and County conferences and assis-ting a Baden-Powell House service crew,our group was by no means exceptionaleither locally or nationally.

It therefore came as a surprise to learnfrom the Scouter, from Official pronounce-ments and from the words of our highly-respected and incontestably sincere Dis-trict Commissioner, expressed at meetings,that, unless radical !changes were intro-duced, Scouting would be dead within tenyears. I consulted local census returns andthe comparative figures of national returnspublished in the Association's annual re-

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Viewport, but while they confirmed that sec-tions fluctuated with the rise and fall ofthe birth-rate, nowhere could I find any-thing to support such a startling assump-tion. So far as I and many of my col-leagues were concerned in this by nomenas unusual district, we were told thatfundamental change was needeClratherthan sensing it for ourselves.

There was of course mounting specula-tion as publication date approached andno doubt as much as possible was done toheighten' our curiosity. The side effectswere an unsettled atmosphere, new pro-jects deferred and half the boys in 'nouniform or semi-uniform. When the greatday arrived we were among the first tobuy copies of the Report both in its fulland abridged versions and most of us wentinto the new era with every intention ofmaking it a success. Within a very shorttime, we had amalgamated with tws othergroups in the centre of the town to formone large unit, which was no doubt goodAPR thinking, and the parents had com-mitted themselves to an expenditure ofnearly £300 on the new uniform.

My own feelings however, were mixed.As the deliberations of the Advance Partyhad been conducted in extreme secrecy,there had been no scope for informed dis-cussion 01 their proposals before publica-tion and the Report was ratified almostimmediately afterwards making discussionthen rather pointless. I enquired of Head-quarters whether the Report should nothave been allowed to "lie on the table"for a time and the official reply was thatin view of the urgent need for reform nofurther delay could be countenanced. ButI was still left with an unhappy feeling thatan important step in the democratic pro-cess had been omitted, as if the govern-ment were to accept the text of a RoyalCommission report and immediately passit into law without introducing legislationto Parliament. This might conceivably havebeep justified if the sudden blaze of pub-licity had resulted in a rapid influx of newmembers but, as events quickly showed,nothing of this kind happened.

Our amalgamation demonstrated a

vicious circle namely that while one needsincreased numbers for the economic attain-ment of improved facilities, one also needsimproved facilities as soon as amalgamationtakes place to cater for the increasednumbers. The immediate impact for uswas that 50 boys had to use a hall suitablefor 25. Another similar hall was available,but a troop meeting in separate halls is notan amalgamated troop. The staff situationwas marginally improved, but disciplineproblems seem to increase in a geometricalprogression to the number of boys. Thenew group became financially stronger, buttwo of the three groups had been in pos-session of substantial funds and equipmentbefore. On the debit side, in the two yearswhich have since elapsed, no fine newheadquarters has arisen, no more boyswent to summer camp last year than weregarded as a minimum in the one grouppreviously, friendly rivalry and competi-tion has been diminished, and despite theefforts of several devoted scouters, thereis now one medium sized group wherethere were two medium sized groups andan independent Cub pack before. I am inno position to judge whether the qualityof Scouting has improved, but I think itwould not be presumptuous to say thatit left little to be desired when the groupsoperated separately.

My second point concerns the localimage and the uniform. For the last twoyears I have been looking at things mainlyas a member of the public and I have there-fore been exposed to as much, or little,Scout publicity as anyone else. Work takesme daily to central London and a westLondon suburb, and I cannot rememberwhen I last saw a Scout in uniform in anyof the three areas which I regularly traverse.Evidently the APR hope that boys wouldbe proud to wear the new uniform in thestreets has not been realised. The olduniform was an important unifying factorbetween all members of the group andwith other Scouts throughout the worldand I have no doubt that our particularbrand of it, as it had been worn for fortyyears, meant something to our boys, "trad"and sentimental as it might seem. We neverencountered any real uniform problemsand although it was sometimes used as anexcuse for non-attendance the real reasonwas almost always homework, girl friendsor family troubles. To my enquiry why,when boys were happy to wear shorts foralmost every leisure activity and to turnout on the football field in front of hun-dreds, they were supposed to be wrong for

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Scouting, the only answer I ever got wasthat Scouting was "different". I see noreason why the APR should have demand-ed complete uniformity at such expensewhen no such requirement exists in theArmv, As things are now, one is no longervisually aware when Scouts are on themove and their attendance at publicgatherings can easily go unnoticed.

Judging from local events and the press,everything in my district is much asalways. There has been no great decline innumbers and little increase. Scouters arein short supply as ever and those whoonce said "I would help if only it werenot for ... " have not materialised. Nothingstrikingly new has happened to catch thepublic imagination and Scouters continueto wrestle gallantly with the problem ofthe weekly meeting not greatly fortifiedby the APR's mixture of suggested youthclub and Duke of Edinburgh's awardactivities. Several groups have acquirednew headquarters, planned and workedfor over many years.

The local newspapers commented thatthe 1969 St. George's Day parade was oneof the smallest and briefest on record andnews has come recently of the disbandingof a Venture Scout Unit. On the otherhand, a Chief Scout's visit aroused somepublic interest (which it would have doneanyway) and the Sea Scouts, with an im-portant advantage in a seaside town havecontinued to make progress.

In sumrninq-up my overall reactions tothe developments of the last two years,my main regret is that so much has beenchanged for the sake of change. Sincereand thorough as the Report was, innumer-able details involved alterations for noapparent reason. There seems to have beenan assumption that before the APR themovement was "old fashioned" and thatnow it is "modern", but in what respectwas it in fact old-fashioned? Not in itsemphasis on open air life which has neverbeen so popular as to-day. A return to thesimple life has always been a recurringtheme of industrialised society currentlymanifested by break-away hippie com-munities. Not in lack of sophistication.Boys of 1907 exposed to the full rigourof a working environment and a primitiveeducational system and even those of thetwenties and thirties who came to meetingsafter long hours in shop or factory musthave been far more knowledgable in theways of the world, if less in stature, thantheir modern counterparts who are likelyto be undergoing full-time education for

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the whole of their Scout lives. Not in see-ing the small group as a family or in itssystem of rewards. The psychologicalneeds of boys to belong to a gang and torun with the pack are unchanging as arethose of all human beings to be visiblyrewarded for merit. Not in its ethical prin-ciples and laws. These have always beenperfectly understandable to small boys andare only outmoded in the sense that moralstandards are always "on the decline" asChristianity itself has always been on thedecline. Not in its uniform. The uniformwhich Baden-Powell devised did not rep-resent any fashion of 1907 which hassince been superseded. Had it been retain-ed, it would now have been much closerto colourful "mod-gear" than the NationalService style of the 'fifties which has re-placed it. It is perhaps ironical that sinceScouters gave up neckerchiefs they havecaught on as a trendy Kings Road fashion.Not in its literature. Great play was madeof Kiplingesque traditions but the declineof the British Empire meant little to boysof the 'sixties. The important point wasthe attitude to animals and whether thecreature is called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi orOrlando the Marmalade Cat the instinct isthe same. As for training, the earlierinstructional books were as helpful anddetailed as they could be; they were notimproved upon by the discursive public-ations which replaced them. Not in itsstaff. Publ ic service is a stony path at theIi

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best of times and no movement has everattracted more devoted officers. Trainingis very important and minimum standardsmay be, but they should not obscure thefact that if a Scouter is able to attract agroup of boys and keep them coming,however conservative, ill-informed or oldhe may be, he is doing something moreworthwhile than any set of regulations.Voluntary work will never attract morethan a small minority and Scouting can-not be all things to all boys. Whatever therange of possible activities the core appealis to boys of a fairly gregarious dispositionand moderate intelligence with a practicalbent. A boy may expect his school andcoffee bar to be marvels of the technolo-gical age but he may well want somethingquite different of his Scouting. It is not tobe assumed that where allegedly inade-quate groups are disbanded and links andtraditions built up over the years are des-troyed that "swinging" new ones withsparkling headquarters and numeroushighly-trained Scouters will immediatelyor perhaps ever, take their place.

Where then was the fundamental needfor change which required the deliberationsof a committee over several years, thepublication of a report several times thesize of most government white papers,and an administrative, financial and em-otional upheaval unparalleled in the his-tory of voluntary organisations?

14

Press II

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The Chief Scout's proposals for the reform of the Boy Scout Movement have receiveda cautious welcome in progressive quarters.

Dr. Bruce Westside, Professor of Youth Studies at Stretchford University, stronglyapproves the proposed cutting-down of out-of-date Kiplingesque jungle ritual. But hebelieves that some other kind of ritual, more in keeping with contemporary life, basedperhaps on the observances of Californian beatniks, should be substituted.

Dr. Heinz Kiosk, Chief Psychiatric Adviser to the Egg Marketing Board, is enthusiasticabout the proposed emendation to the Second Law of Scouting. This law, which form-erly read '~ Scout is loyal to the Queen, his country, his Scouters, his parents, hisemployers and those under him" will simply read '~ Scout is loyal".l1s a responsible person," says Dr. Kiosk, "The modern, forward-looking Scout,

with his rationalist and humanist background, will naturally.refuseto have his loyaltiesdictated to him in accordance with an outmoded, feudal code of values and beliefs.

"He will demand the sole right to decide whom he shall be loyal to at any givenmoment - whether it be the Government, his political party or himself - withouthaving any obligation, what is more, to disclose the fact to anyone except a qualifiedpsychiatrist. " .

Mr. Paul Ohm, the Edgbaston freelance technologist and youth worker who runs theBritish Junior Technocratic League, welcomed the- proposal to establish Scouts'"National Activity Centres" for boating, sailing, gliding, climbing, caving, ski-ing,forestry and, best of all, electronic studies.

The last-named centre, he suggests, should be given university status forthwith andgeared to a massive crash-programme for turning out 4 million technological scout-masters by 1975.

Daily Telegraph, 14th June, 1966

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I went into the Scouts' headquarters near Buckingham Palace and asked how theycame to lose 26,049 Scouts in a year.

And they told me and they told me until 45 minutes later I still did not know.Neither, I gathered, did they. I tried next door.

Next door was the Guides' place. A nice H.Q. they have. Red leather chairs, Flags ofall nations. Two vases of yellow chrysanthemums. One splendid young woman, strug-gling with a short skirt on a short chair and saying:-

"I won't hear anything said against the Scouts and I'll do nothing to criticise. Its justunfortunate all this should blow up just because a few acid old boys ... "

I said 26,049 seemed a pretty high estimate for the number of acid old boys, who,in any case, would have been included already in the 3,420 leaders also lost.

"Yes, I suppose you're right. You're not quoting me, are you? Well then, don't na-me me. Call me the spokesman. "

The spokesman hitched down her skirt, said she had been a Guide herself for threeyears (not recently), and that the new Guide uniform would in her view knock an airhostess's eye out. Then she reconsidered my question.

"Yes, why have they lost 26,049 Scouts? It's such a pity; we're great friends withthem all next door.

"We do all sorts of joing things-like the voluntary ski rescue service-at Glenshee. I'llgive you a pamphlet about that. "

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1 thought to get at it another way and J said, man to woman: "The Scouts have lost26,049 members but the Guides have would-be members queueing up. Why thedifference? "

Said the spokesman: "Every girl wants to join the Guides. You know, we really areone big happy family. We're so united, so loyal to one another, from the top right down".

So the Scouts were not loyal to one another from the top right down?The spokesman said: "1will not say anything against the Scouts. They are just as loyal

to one another as we are, I'm sure,"If they're having a difficult time at the moment it might be because they're not so

adaptable to change as women are... "The spokesman looked scared, as though she had said too much, but there was no

risk of being over-heard next door, so she went on:-:"The new changes are pretty drastic for both Scouts and Guides. The Scouts are

pushing them through faster than we are and that probably doesn't help."But 1 don't think men like change anyway. For every man who will rebel to change

things there are 10 who will rebel to keep things as they are."Women are different, You know our motto-Be Prepared. That's it. Be Prepared for

anything: We can do it, change anything anywhere, without fuss. "J do not believe this is really the reason why 26,049 Scou ts have hung up their

uniforms. But it \Vas a better reason than any 1 got from the place next door. A verygood try.

If only it were possible, those 26,049 Scouts could do worse than join the Guides.Daily Express, 1st October, 1968

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Socialisationa key factor

1.\!"-;-I,

IntroductionThe publication of the Advance Party

Report has provoked much comment andsome action both within and without theMovement. But it is important to keepthese developments in focus, and main-tain a rational and objective position.Scouting is, after. all, concerned with thecontemporary youth situation and the ul-timate objective of harmonious socialis-ation of adult society. The problems whicharise in the Troop situation are not pe-culiar to Scouting; indeed, the Movement,far from providing "the complete ethic",is really only one of a number of socialisinginfluences, which include the home andschool. Numerically, its proportion of theyouth population is small, and its influenceis thus a small one on a huge environment.This is not to deny that ex-Scouts are tobe found in all walks of life, and manymake a successful career. The question ishow successful the Scout socialisation tech-nique is.The Facts

We are often told that Scouting is agame. If this is true, and B.-P. himselfclaimed it was, (1) then we should guardagainst taking the Movement too seriously.It is not a sacred cow. Even Baden-Powellhas to be scrutinised in terms of the valuestructure of his social position. Questionsare now being posed, and it is right andproper that these should receive adequateconsideration. Is there equal opportunityfor all? What are the lasting values andwho decides them?

The facts of modern life have to befaced. It is no use pretending that societyis structured in exactly the same way as itwas in 1907. E.C.T. Spring decries the"nation-wide reversal of long-acceptedstandards or what is termed Victorianmorality", (2) but the facts of leatherjackets and contraceptives are with us.Youth has evolved its own culture, and anunderstanding of this, together with anappreciation of the problems of the adultworld, is necessary for successful socialis-ation. As a Movement, Scouting mustmove, but it has above all to meet certainneeds:-

1) the ability to cope with adult prob-lems.

2) the freedom to make existential de-cisions.

3) the opportunity to exercise respon-sibility.

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-4) an acceptance as equals.

AppealIn admitting contemporary needs and

continuing rapid social change, it is worthconsidering the appeal of the Movement.B.-P. endowed it with a romantic charisma,with a particular emphasis on the outdoorlife and Scoutcraft. It was the very differ-ence from other youth organisations thatgave early Scouting its strong appeal. Thepreservation of a separate identity is par-ticularly important today with the deve-lopment of mass society culture. Theclaim that

"Only by introducing a wider and un-restricted field of new interests will webe able to reverse the present trendtowards the limited Scouting activity ... "(3)

is a truism. But whilst an up-to-date pro-gramme is essential, the implication is thattraditional Scouting is a limited activityand thus undesirable. Yet the value of arealistic, romantic escape should not beunderestimated as a concept of mentalhealth. In many cases, woodcraft, campingand "the great outdoors" have more at-traction than vast new programmes, withcorrespondingly less romantic appeal.The conservative sub-ideology...

Although possessed of a propheticvision, B.-P. was nevertheless a child of histime, and the social movement he createdhas to be considered in terms of the valuesand attitudes then prevalent. He spent thewhole of his life in upper middle class sur-roundings, and, while sympathising withworking people, he felt a strong loyalty tohis own social background. It is not sur-prising then, that he should have develop-ed, if unwittingly, a movement based onmiddle class values and ideals, therebycreating a further bastion of conservatismin which Britain and the Empire could haveimplicit faith. In addition to a method andideology, he bequeathed a sub-ideologydedicated to the maintenance of the socialstatus quo. (4) This conservative sub-ideo-'logy has, in many ways turned the Move-ment into a middle class institution, suchthat M. Carter reports that:

"Parents (of rough families) certainlydo not encourage their children to goalong to the 'official' sorts of youthorganisation such as Boy Scouts or Gi'rlGuides ... These organisations, they be-lieve, are 'fu II of snobs' and of 'peoplewho think they are it' ... There is little

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understanding, and no sympathy for thestandards and codes which such orqanis-ations promulgate." (5)

This rather wide generalisation does atleast illustrate that 'class' feeling is notextinct, But the Teachers' Labour Leaguewent even further in 1929 to claim that theaims of Scouting

"are to train working class children tobe 'loyal' to their employers and traitorsto their class ... " (6)

But, once the class bias is-realised and ad-mitted, Scout material can be approachedwith a new understanding, and, in thislight,

" ... its best ideals still spring from thefoundations originally laid down afterBrownsea and the rules first given in'Scouting for Boys' ". (7)

...And adolescenceIn this situation, it is relevant to ask

whether Scouting is teaching the freedomto make existential decisions or simplypropounding a value system. To a greatextent, this depends on the leadership, butif the ideology is followed too closelv,there is a very real constraining influenceon the adolescent, which can result inpainful role conflict. The Movement de-mands a high degree of conformity. Yet,although as Chinoy maintains, some mea-sure of conformity is-a prerequisite "of anordered society, this should not obscurethe desirability of allowing the boy free-dom to make his own decisions. (8) Theleader has considerable power to enforcethe ideology, as pointed out by Musgrove:

"Adults whose overt bahaviour is suit-ably non-adult...can be excluded fromresponsible participation in affairs, re-warded for dependency, penalised forinconvenient displays of initiative, andso rendered sufficiently irresponsibleto confirm the prevailing teenager -stereotype. They can be made into vir-tual outsiders." (9)Greater understanding of the adolescent

situation, as a culturally and socially deter-mined phenomenon, is urgently needed.(10) Young people are eager for adultstatus, and it is essential that Scouterstreat their Scouts as responsible equals(often difficult!) and accord them as manyopportunities as possible of taking respon-sibility and sharing the running of theTroop. The experience gained from specificrole playing such as a.M., P.L., Librarian,and treatment as equals will greatly easethe process of socialisation. In this connec-tion, it is interesting to note the findings

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of McPhail's Oxford survey on character-istics approved and disapproved in adults.Approved:1. reasonable freedom2. avoiding the use of force3. treatment as equal4. tactful behaviour5. helpfulness6. efficiency7. good exampleDisapproved:1. unreasonable demands2. restrictions/punishments3. superior/sarcastic behaviour4. refusal to listen to explanations5. being Qver~critical/nagging6. complaints in clothes/hair/teenage gene-

ration.7. puzzling behaviour (11)These provide a wide basis for the "wisersituational treatment (which) can reducemany of the problems of adolescent be-haviour". (12) Leadership remains thecrucial factor. There are still Scouters whoprefer the directive approach to the non-directive, despite the fact that the latterencourages social maturation and self-reliance. Problems need to be freed fromthe conventions of society, particu larJy sex,and attacked rationally in the open.Adolescent behavioural trends

Adolescents do not form a homogenousgroup, yet there are significant adolescentbehavioural trends, which, when appreciat-ed, 'put Scouting in perspective.

1) Decline in male peer group atten-dance (with age)

2) Increasing interest in a dual-sex en-vironment

3) General trend away from group mem-bershipThese generalisations appear to hold truein many cases. Wilmott, in his study of(13) East London, found that as boysmature they tend to spend less time withtheir old peer grC)up in order to be ableto take out girl friends. Where interest ingroup life was maintained, the group wasusually mixed. The .girl factor is probablyone of the largest single factors in the de-cline of Scout membership; this is onlybalanced by those who are able to achievea high level of identification with Scoutingand are thus retained. In the majority ofthe studies undertaken increased interestin girls correlated with decreasing groupattendance for one sex organisations. Thisis certainly true of Scouting, which showsthe same downward trend.

(14) 11 12 13 14 15Scouts 94% 100% 82% 60% 38%Venture Scouts

16 17 18Scouts

10%

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Venture Scouts 13% 8% 4%Socialisation to adult life is very much con-cerned with attitudes to the opposite sex,and, as Fleming points out, the adolescentneeds a "healthy atmosphere where in-terest in the opposite sex is held to benormal, unremarkable and permissible".(15) One is tempted to ask whether aneasier attitude to this question would in-crease the attractiveness of the Movement;mixed activities and possibly even a jointorganisation could well be an answer.

Carter also points out that a significantdrop occurs at school leaving age, whichcoincides with a certain amount of econ-omic independence. Scouting is oftenassociated with school children, and"young workers felt that they had 'got tooold for that sort of thing'''. (16) If this isthe point at which the majority of adoles-cents have to take their place in the adultworld, perhaps it is fitting that Scoutingshould in fact "leave go". Yet the social-isation process is hardly complete at six-teen, and the slow expansion of both theScout and Venture Scout sections as aresult of the new possibilities broughtabout by the A.P.R. continues. Some ofthe early glitter remains, but it must beremembered that as the Movement drawsnearer to the other youth organisationsmany potential Scouts are "lost" to YouthClubs and more specialised groups withwhich the ordinary Troop cannot hope tocompete in either terms of finance orequipment.In Conclusion

Scouting, taken in its historical context,can be an exciting and stimulating forcefor the harmonious socialisation of adoles-cents into adult society. In undertakingmodernisation, the character of the organ-isation must be considered; romantic ap-peal tends to diminish with increasing'regimentation. Based, as the Movement is,

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on considerable regional differences, thereis no need for a "uniform" organisation ...it is the individual Scout who matters. Thespontaneity of the early days is nownoticeably lacking, and a central bureau-cracy has replaced B.-P.'s charisma. It isto be hoped that the need for greater re-sponsibility, of Scouters in addition toScouts, will be recognised by opportunitiesfor greater participation. (17)

NOTES:(1) see p.270, "Lessons from the Varsity

of Life" (B.-P.), and elsewhere.(2) p.13, "World of Boys", E.C.T. Spring,

1967, A.H. Stockwell Ltd.(3) p.128, "The Advance Party Report".(4) For an interesting discussion of B.-P.

in this respect see W.S. Adams' studyin "Edwardian Portraits", 1957,Secker and Warburg.

(5) pp.57-8, "Into Work", M. Carter,Penguin .

(6) quoted p.200, "Baden-Powell", E.E.Reynolds, 1957, Oxford.

(7) p.249, "B.-P.'s Scouts", Collis, Hurll,Hazlewood, 1961, Collins.

(8) see p.453, "Society", E. Chinoy,1967, Random House (N.Y.).

(9) p.16, "Youth and the Social Order",F. Musgrove, 1964.

(10) see "Social Psychology", W.J.H.Sprott, 1952, Methuen.

(11) quoted p.180, "The Psychology ofInterpersonal Behaviour", M. Argyle,1967, Penguin.

(12) p.235, "Adolescence", C.M. Fleming,1963, Routledge and Kegan Paul.

(13) see "Adolescent Boys of East Lon-don", P. Wilmott, 1966.

(14) based on 1969 Census returns, with12 as the base year.

(15) p.47, "Adolescence", C.M. Fleming.(16) p.295, "Home, School and Work",

M. Carter, 1962.(17) Israel is a good exam pie of respon-

sible participation, where the NationalCouncil is made up of 34 Scouts andGuides aged 15-18, and only 17adults.

I.C. Faulds,Department of Social Theory and Administration,

The University of Durham.

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19

Leader's Views

"This sounds like a one-man crackpot to me." Fred Hurl!Scout Association Chief Executive, SUN, 1st October, 1968

A handful of comments from the hundreds of circulars in our possession.

"As an ex-Scouter Iwas very interested in the News that someone was at last challen-ging the 'New Look'. I believe hundreds in this area feel the same way, please let mehave any suggestions you may have that would lead to restoring Scouting to the trueB.P. ideals .."

R.G. Coventry

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"Todays groups should not be run by Scout Leaders but need an administrator,handyman, P. T. instructor, SR.N., naturalist, and a host of other specialists. Scoutingtoday is far too complicated and unnecessarily serious. "

W.P.c. Kings Heath, Birmingham

"They seem to have made the unforgiveable mistake of thinking that members ofthis highly successful, gradually evolved voluntary flexible semi-democratic organisationcould be made to toe a rigid line and accept bureaucratic edicts they neither understandnor believe in. "

D.L. Kings Lynn

"I have been the Cub Scout Leader in Barmouth for 21 years we were a Church Packbut open to non-Church members. I had a pack of 40 Cubs. We. had a new DistrictCommissioner appointed in October and without a word to the Rector or myself wewere both told we were no longer a Church pack. We met in the Church Hall free ofcharge and he still expected to be allowed to have the Hall. He walked into my meetingwith another Cub Scouter and took over saying "From now on we are going to dothings properly. " Iwould also add he had not even called the Group Committee.

J .H. Merioneth

"The new uniform is impracticable on grounds of cost, use or material. The outergarment is equally useless it is not even windproof We will retain neckers, shorts, andwe hope short-sleeved shirts whatever colour. The badges are not large enough. Thepresent capitation fee is too high - and not value for money. Why do we need anexpensive H. Q. in central London?"

P.H. Manchester

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"As a Scout Leader in what is described as a poor area. 1 am constantly faced withproblems which never arose during the pre-A.PR. days due to the fact that the 130ysin my troop have neither the intellectual or financial background which the new train-ing scheme seems to demand. 1would therefore welcome a return to the more basic andI believe more enjoyable training programme where a Scout troop practised Scoutingand not the curriculum of a technical college. "

L.P. Edgware

"The seven points you set out on the back of your letter seem to be the main paintsthat we find are arising in Belfast. Some are in favour of the new set-up, some wouldprefer your seven points. 11

K.N. Belfast

AND ABROAD

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l~"Scoutmaster Russell is an opponent of the new look in Scouting that will com-

pletely replace the existing program by the end of this year. The new programs weredesigned by the National Council of Boy Scouts of Canada to "allow boys more free-dom of choice within the movement". But in my opinion, this will emasculate thescout movement says Russell. Scouting is leaning towards the academic and the boysget to enough of that in school."

Canadian Panorama, April Sth, 1969

"I think I know rather well the situation of the French Scoutism. Although it ispractically impossible to know exactly how many Scouts are left, practically it is adisaster, but they will never confess it. Morally it is a catastrophe. Nothing is left fromthe old ideal. To save their number they asked the Bishops conference to condemn anyother movement and to refuse assistance to-the new movements. Their Pioneers had a.meeting in Paris last year. In their discussions it was just propoganda for social andguerilla war."

PR. Lievin France

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G~ DAVIESVenture Scout; ngre-assessed

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Since Venture Scouting was introducedinto this District, Venture Scout member-ship has been dropping at 13% per annum,against a rise for the rest of the District of+4% per annum.

Training has declined in an even morespectacular manner, with the numbersachieving their Queen's Scout Award de-clining at 35% per annum. This trend iscontinuing at all levels of Venture Scouttraining.

Activities generally are on the decline,an indication of declining enthusiasmbeing the recent cessation of regular Vent-ure Scout Leaders' meetings in the District

Much of the blame for the failure ofVenture Scouting rests with the fact that'anew scheme was introduced with little orno guidance as to how to put it into pract-ice, either from the material side or fromthe human side.

National Activity Centres were general-ly created merely by a change of name, anincrease in price of admission, and littleelse. Even now, the number of these esta-blishments is pityfully small, and informa-tion on the many non-scout activity cen-'tres is extremely poorly circulated. Distr-

II I'1'1I I'

ict Activity Advisers, although recommen-ded by the Advance Party Report, stillhardly exist.

Where the recommendations have beencarried out, such as the amalgamating ofUnits into larger ones, these have general-ly been "shot-gun" marriages which haveusually collapsed for lack of expert advise.

Where Venture Scouting has most sever-ely collapsed, however is in the working-class areas. It has become, more than evera pastime for the fairly well-off with plen-ty of leisure time. '

Many of the intended important feat-ures, such as elected executive committ-ees and special-interest sub-sections havebeen a failure because Unit sizes are toosmall, and because Scouters were not suff-iciently informed or motivated as to thepurposes behind these ideas.

Scouter motivation has been complete-ly overlooked. Are they trying to keepyouth off the street? (television does thatfar better). Are they' 'trying to producebetter citizens? Do they know what bettercitizens are? Perhaps just quieter moredocile (and apathetic) ones?

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22

REYNOLDSbeing up to

From time to time the cry goes up thatwe must bring Scouting up to date. We aretold that this is an age of technicaltriumphs and of mechanical miracles; wire-less, jet-propulsion, television and otherevidences of man's increasing knowledgeand inventiveness are mentioned as proofsthat Scouting must widen its scope if it isto appeal to the boy of today. Photographsoccasionally reach Jamboree showingScouts using walkie-talkie apparatus onWide Games of handling other bits ofmechanical equipment; the implicationseems to be that here is up-to-date Scout-ing taking full advantage of the latest in-ventions. On the surface this theory seemsattractive, but I believe it is fallacious.Scouting has never been up to date in thesense of changing its programme of ac-tivities to include the most advanced formsof mechanical ingenuity, while at thesame time discarding out-of-date activitiessuch as using rope instead of nuts andbolts.

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Could anything, for instance, be moreout of date than cooking a meal over awood-fire in the open when one can buymarvellous apparatus for the purpose? Orwhy hike to camp when there are trainsand buses? Why, in fact, go to 'camp 'atall with all the labour of putting up tents,making one's bed, and doing innumerablechores when it is possible to have allmodern comforts at moderate prices atwhat are misnamed Holiday Camps? Whyhave our own Camp Fire songs and enter-tain ourselves when you can turn on thewireless and lie back and listen in comfort?In fact we are hopelessly out of date, andthat is why Scouting still appeals to boys.Where it fails the weakness lies, in mostcases, in a neglect of those out-of-datefeatures of Scouting that still attract themodern boy. B.-P.'s. scheme is timeless

1

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date

because he based it on the permanent long-ings and instincts of the boy and not onpassing attractions and fashions. It wasjust as out of date in 1907 to cook in theopen as it will be in 1957, and in' bothyears the thrill for the boy is the same.But B.-P. knew that most boys have akind of primitive urge to get down to earthand behave like pioneers and back-woods-men and explorers. It is there that the trueappeal of Scouting is found. This side ofboy-nature is just as strong as ever in spiteof all our modern inventions; he will, ofcourse, be intensely interested in the latesttype of' motor car or aeroplane - that isone side of his nature; but there is theother side, too, the more deeply rootedlove of roughing it and getting to grips withnature. Out job is with this second part ofhis needs, and Scouting is one of the fewagencies that can still satisfy them.

* * *The increasing mechanization of our

times, accompanied as it is by a greaterdependence of the individual on such aids,makes it all the more important thatScouting should offer, as it has alwaysdone, a compensating form of training inwhich the individual is encouraged to de-pend on his own skill and to do things forhimself. There is one fortunate advantagein unmechanized Scouting; anyone withthe proper qualities of character and theneedful abilities can begin a Pack orTroop with almost no equipment. Grad-ually Troops acquire more expensive gearsuch as tents, but the Troop can beginwith little more than a few lengths ofrope. The more we mechanize Scouting,the more expensive is it going to become,and that inevitably means that fewer boyscan afford to join the Movement.

* * *I have not seen any records to show

23how far the use of elaborate apparatus,for instance for signalling, has drawn morerecruits. It would be interesting 1;0 havesuch information. One experience may bea guide. It might have been thought thatan Air Scout branch would make anirresistible appeal in these days. Air Scoutswere started in Great Britain during thelast war; there were many recruits at thattime, but the number declined soon afterthe war and seems to have become stabil-ized at some two thousand Scouts out ofa total of over four hundred thousand inthe Movement - about 0.5 per cent. Thismay be a special case as aeroplanes are notavailable for constant use! But there are all

the anciliiarv appeals connected with aero-planes, yet these do not seem to be verystrong.

My own conclusion is that Scoutingstill makes its primary appeal to the woo--dcraft instincts of the boy and if these -getoverlaid by more superficial attractionsof the day, Scouting will suffer. This doesnot mean ignoring or scorning advances ininvention and mechanical ingenuity; wemust r:egard them as secondary consider-ations, being firm in the conviction thatan 'Open wood-fire and a billycan meanmore to the boy than the latest type ofpressure cooker.

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S.E.21.

S.A.G.AIMSsco uting" .

To retain the basic concepts of Lord Baden-Powell in "modern1.

To seek and to assess nation-wide Scout and public opinion2.concerning the Advance Party Report and the situation re-

sulting from it.

To bring pressure to bear on Scout Headquarters and to encouragethe Committee of the CDUIlCil to look again at "New Look"

Scouting by 1st October, 1970.

3.

* * * * * * * * *

The24

Lads speak

A few comments from the guys most affected - the old Senior SCOlltS.

"J prefer the old way of Scouting. The badges. the uniform, and the Senior Troop "T.H. age 16.3. Left 17 months ago

Preferred the old organisation of Senior Scouts rather than the present type ofVenture Units. Did not fancy travelling to a central point. One knew people in onesown Group, this is not so in the Venture Unit where standards are milch lower.

P.H. and S.K. both now 17. Left April 1970

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"The new badge system was far worse than the First ClassI was working on and wastoo much like school. "

K.P. i6, left 8 months ago.

"Did not like the uniform. Our Troop was one of the best, and Skip' insisted that wewear proper uniform when Scouting. All those who chickened out just left. That waswhy our troop was the best. Now anyone can join. But its no good now. "

T.N. now 19, left two years.

"1 don't know why they bothered to change it. Our old troop has about the samenumber as before except the boys are much younger than it used to be and there is farless real scouting done. "

P.R. now 18 left 6 months.

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"We didn't have enough blokes to make a Venture Unit or whatever they calledthem, and this Commissioner came down and told us we all had to go about half a mileacross town to some troop we didn't know and meet with their blokes. Wewent onceor twice then just got bored. I liked our old gang though, but Skip said we couldn'tstay officially. "

T.K. and G.K. both now 18.

"Scouts used to be fun, and we had some smashing hikes with the Seniors. OurScouter - old Bob - went off to work somewhere else so we carriedon our own for abit. Then we learnt that we had been amalgamated to a Venture Unit about thirtystrong and we were going to do parachute jumping and flying and all that sort of thing..Nothing happened though and there's nothing left now. "

W.H. left two years.

"Training was difficult at first due to lack of information from H.Q. but is now wellunder way. Venture Scouts are the potential leaders of the future and they are readyto go to troops to instruct in specialist subjects. The future of the unit is promising. "

Annual report West Ham South 1967-8.

"We have done our best to interest these Venture Scouts in Venture activities, butwith mixed success. Although finding Venture Scout activities attractive, they aredoing excellent work in instruction. Some members of the Unit find it difficult toreconcile Venture Scouting with what they knew of Scouting, and their views are nowunder consideration.

"I can only say in conclusion that Venture Scouting in this District is in a state offlux and the future is uncertain. "

Annual report West Ham South 1968-9.

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26

~OCKB.P.

NEISHOverboard

"It were well that men in their innova-tions would follow the example of time it-self, which indeed innovateth greatly, butqu ietly, and by degrees scarce to be per-ceived."

Francis Bacon

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Long before B.P. came on the scenemany excellent'" and well-intentioned peo-ple had devised schemes for the better-ment of Youth. All these schemes, not ex-cluding that splendid organ isation the BoysBrigade, found themselves on sticky wic-kets. Something was wrong - but what?

Sir William Smith, founder of the BoysBrigade, approached B.P. and invited himto make suggestions which might bringnew life into his Movement. B.P. spottedthe flaw at once. He saw that all theseefforts approached the problem from thewrong angle.

Adults had decided what would begood for the boys from an adult point ofview. B.P. tackled it from the other endby finding out what boys WANTED. Thatwas his stroke of genius which 'set theThames on fire'.

It was the JUVENILE, as distinct fromthe ADULT, approach.

That was his great break-through andbecause of it Scouting arose spontaneouslyon the initiative of the boys themselves. Iwas one of those boys, Now the AdvanceParty has reversed the process. They havetried to substitute an "Adult Image" forfor the Juvenile.

Scouting is, and always has been, a juv-enile Movement - and what's wrong withthat? lViyDictionary describes Juvenile as"young; suited to youth".

The Advance Party pays a little lip-

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service to B.P. and then proceeds to drivea cart and horse through his basic princip-les.

B.P. said "Scouting isa boys' game: notan exact science."

The Advance Party has substituted 'thesophisticated approach'. The emphasis isall on' 'efficiency'; on conscious self-im-provement. Games are largely 'out'; tech-nology is 'in'.

B.P. said - "Never allow the Movementto become an Organisation". But this isjust what the Advance Party has done. Avast bureaucracy of Commissioners" Com-mittees, panels, and all the rest of it wasvisualised and the Scout Movement saddledwith it even before it was operative -which perhaps was just as well?

B.P. said - "There are no STANDARDSin Scouting - except the STANDARD OFEFFORT." By this he meant that any boy,dull or brilliant, could achieve success pro-vided that, in the opinion of his Scouter,he was giving of the best that was in him.

Now the Advance Party has introducedSTANDARDS at every level.

B.P.'s intention was to encourage, andgive self-confidence, to the backward boyrather than turn out super-Scouts.

B.P. gave us the Badge System. He ad-vised - "Let the young Scout gain one ortwo EASY Badges as soon as possibleafter he has ach ieved Second Class."Where are these "Easy" Badges today?They have "gone with the wind".

Take just one example - First AidBadge. This was a Badge which could betaught by any Scouter who had a simple,common-sense, knowledge of home FirstAid. The boy learnt a lot of simple thingswhich he could put to practical use and, ifhe had tried, could go home as proud as a

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cow with two tails to show his BADGE toMum. Now we only have a "sophisticated"Ambulance Badge geared to the standardsof The Red Cross Society.

After the age of sixteen the lad is notthought to want Badges atall, What rub-bish; what rank bad psychology.

Human nature delights in some tangiblesymbol of Achievement. The OlympicAthlete treasures his Gold Medal; theGeneral treasures his chest-full of Medalribbons. What are these things but Badgesof achievement?

B.P. never regarded his Badges as sortof "City & Guilds" standards of efficiency.He hoped that, among the many Badgesoffered, the lad might find a life interestwhich he might perhaps follow up as ahobby. But there was far more to it than

that. The Badges were simply tools -"carrots" if you like - by the use of whichthe Scouter might be able to hold theboys' interest and so keep him in Scouting.B.P. believed in "infiltration" rather thanthe bull-at-a-gate approach. Through theFUN and interests the great spiritual prin-ciples of Scouting could be "infiltrated"unbeknowns, After all what boy everjoined, or stayed, in Scouting to have his"character developed"? He stayed for theFUN.

The whole thing can be summed up inone final quotation from B.P. He said -"Scouting is a sugared pili".

All that the Advance Party has done isto scrape the "sugar" off and offer the"Medicine" undisguised.

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As the old saying goes, there are statistics and damn statistics. Not unnaturally, thecensus figures are scrutinised most closely, both by those who support the changes,and those who do not. Close attention to these figures is obviously essential to anyappreciation of trends in the movement despite what some folk may suggest.

Of course, it is comparatively easy to manipulate these figures to prove that this, orthat, is happening, which may, or may not, be the case in reality. Generally speakinghowever, it contributes little to the argument to say the Grand Total is up, or down,following a particular change, unless this is related to what the original intentions were.

Much of the Advance Party plan was aimed at the older boy. This has never beendisputed. Therefore the excellent increases in the Cub section whether in boys, orleaders, or instructors and helpers is not necessarily highly relevant. In addition, mostfolk would agree that such changes that have been made in the Cub section are com-paratively milder and less provocative than further up the age range .

The further one goes up the age scale however the worse the post-APR situationbecomes.

Most folk find figures of this kind rather a bore, but one specimen should suffice.Let us take the figures for 1965 and 1969 as follows:

1965 1969Cubs 8 -10 236,122 249,561Scouts 10 - 14 180,713 168,449Youth Service age range Scouts 14 - 21 94,155 81,000From the above one would deduce fav.ourable situation in the Cubs with unpleasant,

but not disastrous losses in the older boys.If however you spotlight the Senior Scout v Venture situation it would look like this:

1965 1969Senior Scouts 47,896Venture Scouts 21,698Now agreed there were some 18,000 Seniors in Boy Scout troops etc. but the point

is that the section was more viable, particularly as regards Queens Scouts etc.If one investigates the previous Rover Scout situation in comparison with the current

Service Team position, the results are infinitely worse. Leaders too, take on quite adifferent look if you apply the above analysis. Whilst overall, the position seems amodest drop, the sectional view indicates much greater losses in leaders of the olderboys. The addition of so many extra Instructors and Advisers tends only to obscure theissue we should all be facing. An Instructor or Adviser is no substitute for a respon-sible Leader. One good Leader may put in as many hours as a dozen Instructors apartfrom the responsibility. The injection of such numbers in the overall figures and grandtotals may obscure the issue from the press and layman, but the average Scouter has apretty fair idea of the real drift in his area.

The statement made fairly frequently by Scout H.Q. that the 'great majority' ofScouters approve of the new scheme is probably correct. Since the really drasticchanges were in the upper age ranges, and the 'great majority' of the movement isconcerned with much younger lads (65% 11 or under). Even if all Senior and Roverleaders had disagreed they would still have been swamped by the other leaders. Yetthe current position in the over-15's after the AP.R. is infinitely worse. Since thereport was primarily concerned to strengthen this section therefore it is reasonable toassume it has largely failed in its intentions whatever has been gained in Cubs by side-issues of the report.

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29

Angus Referendum

The results below were part of a 56-question referendum held in Co. Angus. The fullresults were sent to Scottish Scout H.Q. The questions were collected and selectedwithout censorship by the D. C. 's and the A. C. C. 's of the County of Angus. The answersto the questions were provided by 125 active Scouters and members attending theAnnual Scout conference held on 1st March 1970 in Arbroath.

1. Do you think that the new 'adult look' for Scouting has improved our image,and has attracted more boys into the Movement? .

YES 40% NO 59%

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Do you think that the alterations to the Scout Law and Promise have improvedthem?

YES 40% NO 60%

Do you think that our Founders name and his basic principles should appearmore in our manuals?

YES 93% NO 7%

'4. Do you think that the group gets value for money from the capitation fee?YES 37% NO 63%

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5. Do you think that some of the old and popular outdoor badges which have beenscrapped should be brought back?

YES 94% NO 6%

6. Do you feel that there has been a censorship on criticisms of the new look?YES 79% NO 21%

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7. Is the new age group for Scouts working?YES 6% NO 94%

8. Do you think that there should be a retiring age for Scout officials and leaders?YES 13% NO 67%

i,lI 9. What do you think of the new uniform - Do you think that 'Jeans' should be

accepted for Troop meetings (general activity work) where the New Uniform isobviously inadequate?

YES 89% NO 11%

10. Should every Scout unit have close connection with a church?YES 43% NO 57%

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NORTH AND CENTRAL LAMBETHSCOUT COUNCIL

106 Kennington Road,London, S.E.ll

15th April 1970.(Dictated 14th April)

J. C. Hillsdon, Esq.,l~, Crampton Street,LONDON. S.E.17

Dear John,I am writing to confirm what you told me when we met

last night, 13th April, in the pl:esence of our Chairman,Mr. Eric Dew; namely that you had.no intention of giving up,that you intended the Group should continue and that youintended to go to camp in the Surmner. I told you, you willremember, that there could be no question under these circum-stances of the Group being re-registered at the 31st March lastand, therefore, I must tell you that the Group, so far as we areconcerned, as from today's date no longer exists.

I further confirm that you promised to write to me witha detailed list of the Group's equipment and with the Group'sStatement of Account and Balance Sheet. I therefore lookforward to receiving these in the very near future.

Would you kindly take nate that as from the date ofreceipt of this letter no member of your Group will therefore beentitled to wear Scout badges of any kind, neither will they becovered by insurance for any activity, and the use of the Group'sflags must not be continued.

I am extremely sorry to have to take this step but youof course readily appreciate that you have left me no alternative.I must of course inform the Churqh ~Jltherit:testhat"""t~rd nolonger exists. vmL'

~----/_;::~---_.__----GOm5"ON BATMAN

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