Odpis z Polish Affairs, nr 6-7, VII/VIII 1961 str 12-16
AN APPEAL OF THE POLISH BOY-SCOUTS
The Polish Boy Scouts Association addressed to the Boy Scouts International Conference (to be held in Lisbon in September, 1961) the following appeal against the decision of the Boy Scouts International Committee concerning the position of Boy Scouts Associations acting in exile in World Scouting.
Dear Brother Scouts, Leaders of the World Scouting!
Polish Boy Scouts Associations (whose Headquarters owing to Communist occupation is now, since the war, in London), appeals to you assembled in the Boy Scouts International Conference, against the decision of the International Committee reached in Ottawa in September 1960, and communicated to us on July 4th 1961, the decision which tries to bring to an end the old established Scout Movements of Central European Countries, now in exile. The Committee comes back to the unfortunate and regrettable resolution taken in 1947 at Chateau de Rosny, which says in paragraph (e):
“All Exile and Refuges Scouts who eventually take up their residence in a country where there is already a recognised member organisation of the Conference shall have the choice of becoming members of that Association or of relinquishing their Scout membership. On settlement they cease to be in a state of transition and are bound by the laws of the country of their adoption.”
We reject the Committees decision because it is contrary to the resolution of the International Conference, taken in Cambridge, in 1957, and because it is against the basic principles of Scouting, as laid down by Baden-Powell, because it is impracticable and it is wrong.
In 1957 exiled Scouts were invited to the Jubilee Jamboree in Sutton Park, and to the International Conference in Cambridge. This happened because the Chateau de Rosny resolution of 1947 proved to be impracticable and unworkable, and it has never been implemented, mainly because it was in disagreement with the basic liberties prevailing in the Free World. The International Conference in Cambridge voted a new resolution on this subject No. 12/57, recommending “Future permanent relations” with Scout Associations in Exile. This new resolution abrogated the impracticable Chateau de Rosny resolution. The Committees latest decision, applying to us that abrogated resolution, is “ultra vires,” because it is against the resolution of the Cambridge Conference. The Committees decision is therefore not valid.
Besides these legal reasons why the decision of the Committee is not valid, we also wish to state the reasons why it should be rejected by the Conference:
1. PRINCIPLE OF BROTHERHOOD. Scouting is first and foremost a MOVEMENT not an organisation. It is what you feel in your heart and think in your mind, it is the attitude towards life and the way of life. The organisation which professes and practices Scout principles is a Scout organisation. No patent is required to make an organisation a true Scout one, and no patent, no resolution can either make a true Scout organisation, or deprive it of a true Scout character. We profess and practice Scout principles, we feel a true Scout organisation and have been one for over 50 years now. No one ever questioned our genuineness as a true Scout organisation and no one does now. Refusing our admission to the World Brotherhood must mean that the International Scout organisation does not cover the whole scouting. There are true Scout Associations being pushed outside the International Scout Organisation. This is against the principle of International Scout Brotherhood.
Scouting should not only preach the idea of Brotherhood and pay lip service to it. Scouting should observe it and co-operate in making it a real force in international relations. It is a very difficult task. It should not be made more difficult by preaching one thing and doing the other. Leaders of the Western World, proclaim noble ideas which bring encouragement and hope to those under oppression. But the decision denying us the right to exists is simply a contradiction of these noble messages. By this decision Scouting seems to have reconciled itself with these evil practices which appeared after the 2nd World War, and which, one hopes, should never be accepted by the public opinion in the Free World. This is especially true of Scouting, the organisation of Youth. Youth will follow only great ideas. Any insincerity will be very detrimental to the future of Scouting. International solidarity of ordinary people, readiness to understand and to help those oppressed seems to have been greater before the first World War.
We shall always remember with gratitude that during the first Scout Rally in England in Birmingham in 1913 Baden-Powell invited, welcomed and recognised as Polish National Representation Polish boys, although Poland at that time did not exist as a state, suffering 120 long years of national slavery, being divided between 3 neighbouring powers. That was the spirit of the Scout Brotherhood, the foundation stone of Baden-Powell’s scouting.
2. TERRITORIAL STATUS. Scout Associations in Exile represent movements in their own countries where Scouting, dissolved by force, is now forbidden. But the Scout Movements in these countries are still alive as recent experience in Hungary and especially in Poland has shown. They feel to be members of a great family of Scouts. No one else but exiled Associations represent these Movements in the World Scouting. For this reason they can claim ”territorial status”. Such an extension of “territorial status” already exists in World Scouting. There are precedents in this respect. During the last war a number of European Scout Organisations – French, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian and Greek amongst them, - were recognised, although their Headquarters, for a long time, were outside their own countries. Our own example is also a precedent, because our Headquarters in London enjoyed international recognition all through the war and, after the war, until 1947. Russian and Armenian Scouts were recognised between the two wars and the Armenian Scouts in Exile are recognised until today, and rightly so. Is their territorial status better than ours? Or if this is an exception, why exception in one case and not in the other?
3. “IN THE INTEREST OF THE BOY” is the explanation and justification used to refuse to our boys the right to their own Scouting. Only parents have the natural right to decide what is “in the interest of the boy” until the boy grows up. Only the totalitarian States usurped the right to decide what is in the interest of the boy, not bothering about parental rights. International Committee can not usurp parent’s rights. That was very correctly pointed out by a Swiss delegate at Elvaseater Conference. The Committee may advance an opinion but the final decision rests with the parents.
In the International Committee’s opinion the happiness of our boys can be achieved only if these boys renounce their fathers’ national feelings and forget about the land and the people of their fathers’. What a tragic misunderstanding.
4. “OR RELINQUISH SCOUTING.” This is the most unfortunate definition in the history of Scouting which should have been forgotten and never brought to light again for fear of shame and disgrace. If Scouting is a MOVEMENT how can the leading body of World Scouting ask a true Scout to relinquish Scouting? Reject what you cherished in your heart, forget what was ever present in your mind, change your attitude towards life, reject the way of life based on Scout Law and Promise!
Amongst exiled Scouts we have numerous leaders who have suffered prison and concentration camps both from Nazis and Communists, exactly for being members of Scout organisation. How can anyone ask these Scouts to relinquish Scouting? Adding insult to injury! No! The International Committee can not ask anyone to “relinquish Scouting”. Founders rule: “Once a Scout always a Scout” is the right answer and only answer.
5. IMPRACTICABLE DECISION. Chateau de Rosny resolution has never been implemented in the part dealing with Scouts in Exile. Most of member countries concerned did not even try to implement it. None of the Exiled Scout Associations dissolved. Some did not raise protest but carried on their work. Other, like our own, emphatically rejected the decision. All of them developed and grew in strength. To-day they are well established and strong organisations. Even now, after a number of years in exile this problem does not grow smaller.
The Committee’s decision can only stir the feelings of disappointment and cause resentment. The results will be exactly the opposite of what was expected. It is dangerous to create martyrs.
Neither moral principles nor law is in favour of the decision. Moral principles have been dealt with. As far as law is concerned Constitutions in all democratic countries give the residents the freedom of association, speech and convictions. How can Scouting deny to our boys these rights and freedoms which are guaranteed to them by all democratic constitutions? The loyalty of these exiles to their host countries is beyond doubt.
6. HARMFUL DECISION. The Committee’s resolution will not bring Scouting amongst Exiles to an end but will only cause resentment. All it can do is to prevent them from taking part in International Jamborees and Conferences. Indeed, painful to us, but at the same time harmful to the World Scouting an infringement of the basic principle of Brotherhood.
Sooner of later this wrong resolution will have to be revoked. When our countries are free again, and we hope that this will be within the lifetime of our generation, it is unlikely that our Associations, then on their own territories again, will be willing to join the World Scouting without obtaining satisfaction for wrongs suffered. In all probability these wrong decisions will have to be revoked then “pro praeterito”.
The dissolution of Scout Associations in Exile would mean that virtually thousands of boys would be prevented from joining Scouting. Only a small number would perhaps join National Associations of the host countries. Most of them would stay out. But there is another danger involved here. If national Scouting in the traditional form is denied to these boys they might be tempted to join youth organisations sponsored by Communist regimes of their countries of origin. This action has already started and the Committee’s decision will certainly facilitate such an infiltration.
The Committee’s decision against Scout Associations in Exile will no doubt hurt us, but first and foremost it will hurt those Scouts Movements back at home, still alive amongst the youth of our countries. Facts concerning this should be known to the International Committee. The Committee’s decision will be a painful surprise there. It may be construed as a condonation of the dissolution of Scout Organisations there by communist regimes. It will be said that when Communist regimes brought Scout organisations in our countries to an end, the International Scout Committee attempted to do the same to our Organisations in Exile. It will also be used by Communist propaganda in our countries to show the young people that there is nothing they can expect and hope for from the West.
7.FORGOTTEN BROTHERS – SCOUT MOVEMENTS BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN. Before the 2nd World War Scouting was very strong in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Scout Movements there were very popular and their part in the national life was perhaps stronger than anywhere else. World Jamboree in Godollo in Hungary has shown that. True Scout Organisations do not exist there now, but the movements are still alive. In Poland, after October 1956 upheavla, a Scout organisation half a million strong sprung up spontaneously within a few weeks, demanding restoration of true Scout principles and contact with International Scouting. This organisation is now under complete control of the Communist party, but the true Scout Movement as distinct from an organisation is still alive and somehow it is part of World Scout Brotherhood.
World Scouting has forgotten young people in our part of the World. No single message of sympathy, of brotherhood, of hope has ever been voted by Brother Scouts. Forgotten brothers.
UNUSUAL PROCEDURE. The Committee sought approval of the decision by way of a poll amongst member associations. This procedure is, as far as we know, without precedent and without foundation. We believe there was never a case of admission or exclusion of an association by poll and not by the Conference in sitting.
The procedure adopted by the Committee seems to be very unfair towards us as far as a referendum is concerned. The elementary rule of justice is “Audiatur et altera pars”. We had no chance, no possibility to present our case to member countries. The very fact that there was a poll was kept secret from us. The nature of the poll was not communicated to us until afterwards. It looks as though the Committee purposely prevented us from giving any elucidation to member countries called to vote on our future. In most cases probably no one except the International Commissioner has seen the Committee’s circular and in most cases the Commissioner did not realise that there is a sharp difference of opinion about the question and that his silence means a vote against us. He is so often being circularised about new member countries and his attention has not been drawn to the exceptional character of this document. Under the circumstances the result of the poll does not prove anything. Lack of objections in writing does not mean that all Associations approve the Committee’s decision. In fact we know that a number of them do not. In Elvaseater in 1949 there were 37 Associations in our favour. We think there are more now.
OUR CLAIMS. We maintain that the Polish Boy Scouts Association, one of the first Scouts Movements in the World Brotherhood of Scouts never lost membership of International Scouting. We claim that our rights should be restored to us. We consider the decision of the Committee as violating our rights, the basic principle of Scouting and also the resolution of the International Conference in Cambridge 12/57. We declare that we strongly reject the decision of the Committee as being wrong and that we shall always seek the annulment “pro praeterito” of the decisions depriving us of the membership of International Scouting. This we shall do in our own interest as well as in the interest of the whole World Scouting.
Finally, we ask that our representatives be admitted to the International Conference in Lisbon, in September 1961, and given an opportunity of presenting this appeal to the Conference and of supplying all details and explanations which may be required.
Yours in scouting
K. Sabbat Z. L. Szadkowski
International Commissioner President of the Association