GIRL SCOUTS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE 64 SPECTATOR."J SIR,—Some weeks since you allowed me to advocate the cause of Boy Scouts in your columns. May I draw your attention to an offshoot of this movement which seems to me thoroughly mischievous,—namely, Girl Scouts P Again I can speak from personal experience. A corps of Girl Scouts has sprung up in a town with which I am acquainted ; twenty girls or more, varying in age from twelve to sixteen, under the direction of a young Scoutmaster who has had considerable success with Boy Scouts. The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts roam the countryside together on what I can only describe as glorified larking expeditions, expeditions from.which they have been known to return home as late as ten p.m. The girls wear a red cross upon their arms, a symbol one is sorry to see in this connexion. Drill takes place at the Drill Hall—a building intended for men and boys—and I have heard of girls being there at an equally late hour. No woman of any kind has up to the present been connected with the movement, proper supervision and control likewise being non-existent. These mixed corps on raturning from country expeditions are dismissed when the town is reached, girls and boys .finding their way home often in a state of very undesirable excitement. Boots and clothes, seldom unfortunately of the best quality, suffer severely from these expeditions, the girls often coming in soaked through, and thoroughly chilled at the end of a winter day. Naturally anxiety and protest have been excited by these proceedings. Many parents to my knowledge object strongly to their girls joining the Scouts, complaining of the lawless spirit to which it leads; and an unfounded rumour that the local girls' club was in sympathy with the movement called forth strong comment from many anxious mothers.
I have described a local manifestation, but the wider issue remains to be considered. It may be argued that with proper control the evils I have sketched could be avoided. For the mixed scouting described above not one word of defence is possible ; but, speaking as the head of a Settlement with some experience of girls' clubs, may I still urge the undesirability of any general development of this Girl Scouts scheme even on reorganised lines? In the first place, scouting for girls leads nowhere from the national point of view. It is not suggested that we should recruit our Army from women, and Morse signalling as a feminine accomplishment strikes me as singularly superfluous at a time when the decay of household arts is a word of reproach to women in every walk of life. The whole spirit of excitement and self- advertisement bred by the movement is highly objectionable, and from what I have seen myself I cannot too strongly deprecate the tone and temper it creates among children at a difficult and impressionable age. Girls are not boys, and the training which develops manly qualities in the one may lead to the negation of womanliness in the other. To provide healthy and happy recreation for young people, to give them as much fresh air as possible, is an aim always before the head of a girls' club. But such recreation surely should be directed so as to encourage and not to destroy self-respect, dignity, and gentleness,—qualities which are essential to the nation if the wives and mothers of to-morrow are to piny their parts worthily. Ambulance work and Red Cross classes are most desirable for girls, but it is not necessary to associate these things with night attacks or ranging the country with a long pole.
I hear from the Boy Scouts' headquarters that six thousand girls have already enrolled themselves as Scouts, and that a scheme for Girl Scouts is being formulated. I trust that public opinion will assert itself strongly as regards this proposal The friends of Boy Scouts can only feel that an admirable movement will be jeopardised seriously by the objections which must follow the spread of Girl Scouts, and this con- sideration alone, apart from any others, might well give the promoters pause.—I am, Sir, &c., VIOLET R. MARKUAM. Topton House, Chesterfield.
[We heartily endorse Miss Markham's protest. Not only is scouting work most unsuitable for girls, but if it is persisted in it cannot but rain a movement which may well prove of immense advantage, moral and physical, to the nation,—a movement for the making of good citizens. We desire, then, to appeal most earnestly to General Sir R. S. S. Baden-Powell to stop this mischievous new development. Even if he does not agree with this protest, he will, we trust, see the wisdom of not jeopardising the cause of the Boy Scouts by setting public opinion against them, as he most certainly will by insisting on this mad scheme of military co-education. ED. Spectator. I
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