Page:Boy Scouts and What They Do.djvu/99

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Continental countries, such as Poland, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, and Sweden. This must have brought home to the onlookers the possibilities which lie before the Movement in bringing about a closer personal touch between the different branches of the British race, and a better understanding and sympathy with other nations through the comradeship of our brotherhood.

The Chief Scout's Message to the People of Birmingham.

"Before leaving Birmingham at the close of the Boy Scout Exhibition. I should like to say to the people of Birmingham how grateful I am for the very kindly support which they, each in their degree, accorded to the Scouts; from the free-spoken mechanic who, in summing up the Exhibition, said, 'There doesn't seem to be a ——— thing that these kids can't do,' to those who so generously allowed the boys to camp in their grounds—all seem to have shown the kindliest sympathy towards us. They appear to have recognised the fact that the Scout Movement is one intended to help the boys by a practical education, on the top of their school instruction, to get a fair start off in life. It is the want of some method to that end-in the present national system which allows so many of the poorer lads to drift into unemployedness and unemployableness. Our efforts in this direction have already met with an unexpected amount of success, and we are therefore endeavouring to expand our work among the poorer classes in the great cities.

"The Boy Scouts are non-military, non-sectarian, nonpolitical, non-class, and have therefore received the sympathy

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