BOYS' BRIGADE SEASIDE CAMPS.
[To THE EDITOR OE THE " SPECTETOR."1 SIB,—For some years past you have kindly permitted us to appeal through your columns on behalf of the summer camps of the London Council of the Boys' Brigade. Last summer,
of the seven thousand boys on the roll of the Brigade in London, three thousand and thirty-one were enabled to attend the camps. The cost for a week's camp is about 15s. Of this the boys themselves pay one half, which, considering that
they are working boys, in many cases of quite the poorest class, is a fair proportion, and represents considerable effort on their part in the exercise of thrift and forethought. Our appeal, then, is on behalf of those who are helping themselves, and the fact that at present less than one half of the boys are
able to attend camp is sufficient evidence of the need of all the public support we can get. During the winter months the boys go through a thorough training in military and physical drill; they attend regularly the company Bible-class ; in many cases they receive ambulance training; and in a number of other
ways their religious, physical, and mental education—which usually comes to an end as they leave school—is carried on
to their own good and to the benefit of the nation. All this is done after a long day's work in shop or factory ; and the fact that the boys thus voluntarily submit to the discipline and training of the Brigade indicates that they are boys of character and promise, whose present health and future welfare are worth looking after. But for their memberShip in the Brigade very few of the boys would have any oppor- tunity of a holiday, and we appeal to your readers to supply the sinews of war wherewith to enable us to provide for the boys what is not only a glorious holiday and a veritable land- mark in the routine of their lives, but a wonderful opportunity of carrying on the training of the boys, and of developing in them those good qualities of manliness and self-reliance which mean so much for the future manhood of the nation. Con.
tributions should be addressed to Mr. Roger S. Peacock, London Secretary, The Boys' Brigade, 34 Paternoster Row, London, E.C. Cheques to be crossed "Union of London and Smiths Bank."—I am, Sir, &c.,
R. G. HAYES, President of the London Council.
JOHN M. MOODY,
Major-General, Retired.
A. F. BUXTON, Hon. Treasurer.
Paternoster House, 34 Paternoster Bow, E.C.
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