World Camps and the Scout Movement: At the Microphone with Miss In'am al-Saghir

A session at the microphone with Miss In'am al-Saghir

Miss In'am al-Saghir is one of the elite of our educated young ladies. She is president of the Girl Guides of the Muslim Scouts. She represented Lebanon at the Congress of Social Studies held in Sweden three years ago.

Last month a mixed Swedish delegation of Scouts and Girl Guides visited Lebanon, and Miss In'am was among those who accompanied the delegation and made easy the task of acquainting the Swedish Guides with Lebanese family life.

On this occasion Mrs. Edvick Jureidini Shayboub, supervisor of the Woman's Program at Radio Lebanon, put the following questions to her:

Q: Miss, you must surely have acquainted yourself with what concerns the Scout movement, given your recent participation in the Girl Guide movement, which is a branch of it. Would you tell us a little about how the Scout movement arose in the world?

A: In the autumn of 1907, twenty boys representing all classes of society gathered and camped for two weeks with Robert Powell on a small island off the southern coast of England. Powell had assembled them to conduct a new experiment in the field of character-building and of developing the spirit of brotherhood among boys by way of excursions.

— And did his experiment succeed?

— Yes, the experiment succeeded greatly. The boys found in Scouting everything to satisfy their eager, leaping young spirits, and they set about organizing themselves in groups of six or eight boys under a chief, the patrol leader. Powell had begun printing his book "Scouting for Boys" in installments, and the boys snapped it up and began carrying out the instructions and directions it contained. Thus the Scout movement grew "of its own accord."

The Scouts held their first great gathering in September 1909, when some ten thousand boys assembled at the Crystal Palace in London; and at that gathering there were seen — for the first time — some girls wearing Scout hats: they were the pioneers of the Girl Guide movement.

Q: And in our country — when and how did the Scout movement in general, and the Girl Guide movement in particular, come about?

A: Various scouting associations arose in Lebanon on a sectarian basis. After no short time, that is, in 1921, the Muslim Scouts agreed with the scouts of the Ahliah School to form what they called "the Scout Union in Syria and Lebanon," and after a while the scouts of the American University and the Israelite Scouts of Beirut joined this union. A delegation of 25 scouts from Lebanon and Syria took part for the first time in the World Jamboree in Hungary, and this participation had the happiest effect, for Scouting thereupon began to spread rapidly and the number of troops multiplied in all parts of Lebanon and Syria — which led the French Mandatory authorities to restrict this expansion with all manner of decrees and instructions. And when it was decided in 1936 to recognize the two republics of Lebanon and Syria as separate, it became inevitable that the scouting formations of the two countries had to be divided.

— That is truly regrettable, that the young should be forced to divide their ranks so!

— And owing to the war and other causes, the application for recognition of the union and its registration at the International Bureau was delayed until 1943.

Q: And the Girl Guide movement in our country? When did it begin and how did it spread?

A: The Girl Guide movement in general was founded in 1910 by Lord Robert Powell. It was granted its official charter in 1915, and hardly had it appeared in England when it spread and reached other countries. And when most of the educational institutes requested the founding of Guide companies which their girls might join, it was found necessary to establish the Girl Guides Union Association in Syria and Greater Lebanon, and this association obtained an official charter from the government. In 1918 Miss Alice Abcarius founded a scout troop for boys at the Ahliah School, and its effect was that the girls came to desire this movement. And like every new movement, which meets supporters and opponents, so too the Girl Guide movement: the parents at first showed their disapproval of it, but before long they perceived its true nature and understood its aim, whereupon they welcomed and encouraged it.

Q: And may we hear something of the company whose leadership you hold, Miss In'am?

A: The company I supervise today, the Guides of the Muslim Scouts, was founded in 1943 at the Makassed College for Girls.

Q: What is the aim of this movement?

A: Its aim is clear from the Guides' promise and their law. It aims at developing the moral, intellectual, and physical powers in girls, and strives to make them capable of contributing to the civic life of the nation and to prepare them for the task of home and child. To the Guides' activity are added individual and collective social work, self-reliance, and then a life far from luxury, close to pure nature.

Q: That is truly fine. And what is the Guides' promise?

Before donning the neckerchief (the foulard), the Guide comes before the captain to swear an oath, in which she says: I promise on my honor to do my best:
1 — To do my duty to God and the homeland.
2 — To help people and the rest of creation at all times.
3 — To obey the Guide law.

Q: How charming — and what is this Guide law?

A: Their law:
1 — A Guide's honor is to be trusted and relied upon.
2 — A Guide is loyal to her homeland, her parents, her superiors, and those under her.
3 — A Guide is useful and helps others.
4 — A Guide is a friend to all and a sister to every Guide.
5 — A Guide is courteous.
6 — A Guide loves animals.
7 — A Guide obeys her parents and superiors without hesitation.
8 — A Guide smiles and laughs at difficulties.
9 — A Guide is thrifty.
10 — A Guide is pure in thought, word, and deed.

Q: What means do you use to encourage this movement?

A: The activity carried on by the Guides, and the clear moral standard in the promise and law just mentioned, are the greatest advertisement for the movement — in addition to the publicity given by the educational institutions. And the cultural treaty among the countries of the Arab League stipulated, in its fourth article, that cultural excursions must be encouraged, and likewise the scouting movement and athletic excursions.

Q: Let us pass now to the international scouting gatherings and camps. What is the extent of their influence, and of their necessity?

A: These international gatherings are called either the International Jamboree or the International Rover Moot. It is enough to say that thousands of Scouts or Rovers gather in one place, representing the countries of the whole world; the Scout of every land comes to know his brother Scout, and each, from every community and creed, his brother of the remaining creeds. And here the committee of the Seventh World Jamboree, held in Austria last month (from August 3 to 13, 1951), addressed an invitation to Scouts in all parts of the world, saying: "The Jamboree of 1951 in Austria is the Jamboree of simplicity. Brother Scout, we shall find no vast buildings, for we wish to practice our skill at building with timber. We shall not stroll amid glittering lights, for we want to see the moon and the stars. We shall not trouble your ears with loudspeakers and phonograph records, for we want to hear our own voices, the voices of our hearts. We shall not regard you as separate groups, for the ruling idea is the Jamboree."

— What does this word mean, Miss In'am?

— It means friendship and understanding among all peoples, all races, and all communities...

Q: We often hear from the Scouts the name Gilwell Park; what is that?

A: On July 25, 1919, "MacLaren de Bois" officially presented Gilwell Park to the Chief Scout, Baden-Powell, who conferred on him the Silver Wolf, the highest of scouting decorations. As for this spot of earth, it is among the places that leave an immortal and deep impression on the spirit of all who pass through it. Gilwell Park was at that time a group of buildings, ringed by spacious structures, separated from London by a few kilometers; and ever since Baden-Powell became Lord Gilwell, this spot has become, in the Scouts' expectation, the world center of Scouting. Baden-Powell held training courses and camps for leaders of the boys and leaders of the Wolf Cubs from 1919 and 1921, while the Rover leaders had to wait until 1926; and in consequence of the success of this training method, it took on a worldwide form.

Q: There is another famous name in Switzerland which I cannot quite recall...

A: Kandersteg — the model Swiss village; fortune favored me, and I visited it two years ago. It lies in an enchanting spot in the very heart of the Swiss Alps, on the side of a mountain exceeding four thousand meters in height, crowned with snows and clothed with broad forests. The village itself stretches at an altitude of nearly a thousand meters above sea level, surrounded by small, beautiful lakes; the electric railway reaches it, and it has broad farms, roads, brooks, and enchanting waterfalls. It is famous, too, for its underground tunnel, ten miles in length and counted the third of its kind in the world. As for Kandersteg's fame in Scouting: the Scouts bought a "chalet" there in 1923, whose situation helped to make it a world scouting summer resort, and wings were built for every country, furnished according to its national traditions and customs. A short while later, near the Boy Scouts' palace, another palace was built for the Girl Guides; thus the scouting family was made complete, and Kandersteg became a spot dear in the eyes of Scouts.