Sta,—I entirely agree with the leading article published in your
issue of August 17th, particularly with your view that, to counteract the Communist influence on the youth of the world, the Western nations must outplay the Communists at their own game. You also very rightly mention the Scout movement, and as an old Scout I strongly believe that Scouting is the only orgauisation at present existing capable of challenging the Communist bid to capture the minds of youth.
Unfortunately Scouting is not using to the full extent its possibilities in the field of international relations. While—as we all know--the Communist Youth Rallies are not limited to participants from Com- .
munist-controlled countries but, on the contrary,. contingents from the democratic world are encouraged to come and are welcomed as guests of honour, the International Scout Conference still refuses to admit to its membership refugee Scout organisations operating in the Western countries. Therefore these boys are debarred from participating in Scout jamborees unless they leave their own organisation and join the recognised Scout Association of the country of their residence, which in most cases they are not very anxious to do.
I think that the appearance at the world jamboree of Polish, Hungarian, Estonian and other refugee-Scout contingents, camping as separate national groups in their own uniforms and under their own flag, would have a strong appeal on the bps of other countries and would give the Scout jamborees the universal character that the Communists so adroitly managed to give to their own youth rallies. One also should not overlook the influence of such an event on the youth of the countries concerned, where many boys and girls belonged to Scout or Guide troops in a not too distant past. Such news would bring back to their minds memories of happy Scout gatherings in which they participated. and in face of these memories the mammoth Berlin march dominated by balloon-borne monster-pictures of Stalin might appear to them less glamorous than it does at present—Yours truly, S. G. NEBELSKI.
Polish Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Association.
45 Gloucester Road, S.W.7.
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