I hope I have been able in this book to show you something of the appeal that lies in Scouting for all of us.
I want you to feel that you are really Scouts out in the wilds, able to work things out for yourselves, and not just Scouts in a Troop carefully looked after by Patrol Leaders and Scouters.
I know that you want to be up and doing things for yourselves; that these old explorers and frontiersmen appeal to the spirit of adventure in you; that, despite all the modern inventions, you want to get out on your own, fending for yourselves, enjoying the freedom of the open air.
I have just tried to suggest to you some ways of doing this and of helping you to become real men.
Scouting is a fine game, if we put our backs into it and tackle it well, with real enthusiasm. As with other games, too, we will find that we gain strength of body, mind, and spirit from the playing of it. But remember! it is a game for the open air, so whenever the opportunity occurs get out into the open and Good Luck and Good Camping go with you!
THE END
CAMP FIRE YARN No. 27
OUR COMMONWEALTH AND EMPIRE
Shopping for mother may seem at times rather dull, but if you keep your eyes open it can be quite a romantic tour of the Empire. Here is a list of some things and where they come from: oranges from South Africa, pineapples from Malaya, bananas from Jamaica, sugar from the West Indies or Mauritius, cocoa from Trinidad or West Africa, tea from Ceylon, India or Pakistan, coffee from Kenya, or grapefruit from Britis h Honduras.
Do you know where all those places are? Look them up on the map and you will find that they are all Britis h, and they are scattered all over the world. The distances alone are remarkable.
Any of you who have travelled much about this country by train, going for your holidays, and so on, know how two or three hours will take you a good long distance, and six or eight hours will take you to the other end of England.
Well, if instead of hours you travelled for as many days, even six or eight days would take you a very little way over our Commonwealth and Empire. It would get you into Canada, but you would want several more days—not hours—to get you across that country. Eighteen days’ hard travelling day and night would get you to India or South Africa, but either of these are little more than half-way to Australia. And all that distance off, across the seas, on the other side of the world, we have a British Country, Australia, into which you could put thirty-one United Kingdoms.
Of course, in an aeroplane all these times could be cut down considerably.
Nations of the Commonw ealth
The British Countries vary in size and population. Thus India and Pakistan together have an area of 862,599 square miles and a population of over 250 millions (England and Wales and Scotland together have an area of about 89,000 square miles and a population of 45 millions). Then at the other extreme is Ascension with an area of 38 square miles and 200 inhabitants!
They vary, too, in the way in which they are governed. First come the great Nations of the Commonwealth with their own Parliaments. They are so completely under their own management that each declared for itself the accession of King George VI to the throne; they didn’t even do it all on the same day! When war broke out in 1939, each Dominion decided for itself if it would declare war on Germany. Again these declarations did not come on the same day, the best proof, if proof were needed,
that these nations do govern themselves and are not told what to do by the Parliament at Westminster.
The Nations of the Commonwealth are the following:—
Canada.
Australia.
New Zealand.
Union of South Africa.
India.
Pakistan.
Ceylon.
The Colonial Empire
In addition to the Nations of the Commonwealth there are many other British countries which do not entirely govern themselves; how far they do so depends on many things—for instance, the stage of education reached by the inhabitants. But all of them—and this is the point to remember—are on the way to self-government. Some are further on the road than others, but all will sooner or later take charge of their own affairs.
We no longer think of the colonies as places made for our special benefit or profit; in the past many mistakes have been made, but that is how we have had to learn the duty of being in charge of these colonies. The first consideration now is, how can we best help the peoples—whatever their colours—who live in these places?
A good example of how countries have developed under our rule is Ashanti, on the West Coast of Africa. I was out there in 1895, when we marched into Ashanti and stopped the slave-dealing and the horrible sacrifices which went on. It was little better than a savage country then. Yet in 1924, at the Wembley Empire Jamboree, there were Scouts from Ashanti who brought me messages from their fathers who had served under me nearly thirty years previously. I was interested to find that they remembered me as “Kantankye,” which means “He of the Big Hat,” because even then I used to wear a Scout Hat. Now the
Ashantis are being educated along their own lines, and have become a happy, prosperous people. Tribe no longer
