Guide Links
This file contains the text of
"GUIDE LINKS"
by
LADY BADEN-POWELL, G.B.E.
published by
PEARSON
1936
This will enable Google to find her text.
No; it is not very "pretty", but I hope it serves its purpose !
The illustrations do not appear.
The book is written with the young Guide in mind as the reader.
Pages 1 to 57 are below - or click on a Link:-
Pages 58 to 111 Pages 112 to 139 Pages 140 to 204
THE GUIDE RALLY AT THE SCOUTS' JAMBOREE FRANKSTON.
Frontispiece,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
THE material for this book is of slender fabric. The chapters are but brief pen pictures of incidents and places, of people and the passing show, gleaned by the way on a tour around the world.
They have been published week by week in the weekly newspaper for the Guide Movement, called The Guide, and were written for that purpose.
At odd spare moments, between work and play, in heat and in cold, in trains and on ships, it has been my pleasure and my task to write to the Guides of my homeland, to try to take them with me, so to speak, on this interesting and enjoyable voyage.
If these notes can help to pass some quiet reading hour, and open the eyes and minds of my readers to more of the beauties and charms of these far-off countries and peoples, then I shall count my task as a happy one indeed.
OLAVE BADEN-POWELL.
PAX HILL, 1936.
6
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
THE START .
GIBRALTAR .
TOULON
LINERS
NAPLES
PORT SAID .
THE SUEZ CANAL .
ADEN
BRITISH MALAYA .
JAVA .
CHAPTER TWO
AUSTRALIA 58
DARWIN 60
THURSDAY ISLAND 67
TOWNSVILLE . ..... 71
BRISBANE 73
SYDNEY 74
MELBOURNE . ..... 78
THE JAMBOREE . ..... 80
VICTORIA CENTENARY 87
SHEEP STATIONS . ..... 90
SOUTH AUSTRALIA 97
NEW SOUTH WALES . 102
CHAPTER THREE
NEW ZEALAND . .... . 112
GLOW-WORMS 117
ROTORUA 119
TRENTHAM 122
RARATONGA 134
TAHITI 137
CHAPTER FOUR
CANADA 140
BRITISHS COLUMBIA 14O
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 143
RAILWAYS 147
7
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALBERTA I50
SASKATCHEWAN 154
ONTARIO 157
DISCOVERY OF CANADA 160
THE FRENCH LAND SCOUTS IN CANADA . 163
OTTAWA 164
QUEBEC 167
NEW BRUNSWICK 170
NOVA SCOTIA 174
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 174
NEWFOUNDLAND 179
ROBINSON'S 182
OUTPORTS 184
PAPER MILLS 187
AMERICA 190
SCOUTING 193
NEW YORK 200
CAMP EDITH MACEY 203
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE
THE GUIDE RALLY OF THE
SCOUTS' JAMBOREE, FRANKSTON 5
OLAVE BADEN-POWELL 12
THE CHIEF GUIDE AND HER DAUGHTERS . . 32
THE STATUE OF DE LESSEPS AT PORT SAID . 33
TEA IN THE GIRL GUIDES' HOUSE AT KUALA LUMPUR 48
THE CHIEF SCOUT HELD CAPTIVE BY BROWNIES . 49
A STATUE OF BUDDHA SITS IN EACH OF THESE CUPOLAS . 49
TOTEM POLE AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE, VICTORIA . 96
TYPICAL EXAMPLES OF AUSTRALIAN WILD LIFE . . 97
TYPICAL THURSDAY ISLAND BEAUTIES . . . I I2
A LIVING UNION JACK FLAG MADE BY WINNIPEG GUIDES II2
AT THE COMBINED SCOUT AND GUIDE RALLY, DUNEDIN 113
BEING NAMED "OTTER WOMAN," AS AN HONORARY
MEMBER OF THE BARGEE TRIBE . . . 160
GUIDES' MEETING AT VANCOUVER, APRIL 1935 . . 161
PARADE OF GUIDE COLOURS AT LONDON, ONTARIO . 176
A BEAVER DAM . ..... . 176
MURAL BRONZE PLAQUE . . 177
8
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUIDE LINKS
CHAPTER ONE
THE START
THE Chief Scout and I are off on a long trek round the world, and we shall be on the move continuously for some nine months. We are lucky, aren't we ? and, of course, our great delight in doing this long journey is not only the pleasure of seeing so many different places and things, but in meeting Guides and Brownies everywhere. It is going to be just lovely seeing so many of them, and I wonder if they are HALF so pleased as I am about this tour.
The tour will actually enable us to meet them, and to walk about on the land of all the five continents—Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and America—though the calls at some of the places may be very short and last but a few hours.
To begin at the beginning of this tale, I must take you to my home in Hampshire, on the last day before our departure from England. One of the things that looms very large indeed when embarking on a world tour is the LUGGAGE, and the question of what clothes you have to take for every kind of weather, climate, and activity—thick things for the cold days, thin things for the hot, smart tPAGEs for parties, ordinary ones for everyday wear, uniform, of course, of all sorts. On the top of that, all the appendages like shoes and stockings, hats and hankies, seem to take up such a lot of room in boxes, that as there were my things and the Chief's things, as well as Heather's and Betty's, our house was indeed like a luggage shop when we all started packing up !
9
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1O GUIDE LINKS
At last the great day arrived, all the stuff went off in detachments to our ship, and I was left with some last free hours in the home that we all love so much, all my letters and work in England finished, and even time to go out mushrooming with our adored Shawgm and Bong, precious black doggies who sensed that we were going away, but happily did not know that they were to be left behind for so many months without seeing us.
And so to London, and thence early on an October morning to Tilbury to go abroad the fine ship Orania. We had not told anybody much about the time of our departure, and we had expected to slip away without anybody knowing or seeing us. But the Scouts were there all the same, some hundreds of them, to speed us on our way, and one kind company of Guides from Kent turned up unexpectedly too.
I simply love board-ship life, and the time goes so quickly. No letters and telephones can catch you, you can't be restlessly inclined to do anything but just sit and read and write, and even sleep.
I started rather badly by falling down some stairs and landing at the bottom on my face, so I retired to bed and slept for two days and two nights without stopping, which was most restful and nice.
GIBRALTAR
After three days we arrived at Gibraltar. It was a morning of lovely soft sunshine, the sea gloriously blue, the coast-line of North Africa across the straits some twenty miles away showing up so clear and seemingly so close, and the fine, handsome old " Rock" looming up, beautiful and grand.
Our ship was only due to stay in port for a few hours, to drop mails and passengers, so we only had an hour ashore ; but there were all the Guides mustered to greet us, and a fine, splendid lot of Scouts too.
From Gibraltar, our way took us north-eastwards, in
------------------------------------------------------------------------
GIBRALTAR I I
sight of the coast of Spain. It was a fine day with a smooth sea, and we were able just to loaf in the sun on deck, enjoying the glorious views of the Sierra Nevada, high, rugged mountains showing up blue and wonderful beyond the haze-covered lowlands.
The Balearic Islands were our next port of call, but there was no chance of landing, as time was short, and we just dropped a few passengers on the wild rugged-looking island of Majorca and sped on our way into the Gulf of Lyons, which has always been rough and unpleasant whenever I have sailed across it.
TOULON
In the early morning we crept quietly into Toulon harbour, a beautiful sight, the sun just rising and tingeing all with a pinky glow, lighting up the tops of the surrounding hills, the town itself at the water's edge all blurred in the smoke and mist, just awakening to the new day.
Lying at anchor were ships of all descriptions, and farther into the dockyard were to be seen rows of battleships and cruisers of the French Fleet, grey dragons of the sea, for this is the " Portsmouth " of France, their important naval base.
Two sleek slim submarines came gliding past us, and as we anchored they dipped their flag to " His Majesty's Mails " as they passed us, and " manned ship " in courtesy and respect.
Toulon itself is a busy enough town when you get into it, and when we landed to drive to the Rally Ground we were hard put to to get through the narrow streets, which seemed only wide enough to take one car at a time, but which were expected to take cars, buses, carts, trams, bicycles, and pedestrians, all jostling one another as they hastened hither and thither doing their morning's marketings.
As you all know, there are the two Movements of
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I2 GUIDE LINKS
Guides in France, the one wearing dark blue uniforms (Guides) and the other wearing a very attractive sort of brown (Eclaireuses), and it is delightful that whenever we appear on the scene they combine and all come together to hold a joint Rally and make a joint welcome to us.
And so on parade here in Toulon there was a nice muster of some Soo Scouts, several Packs of " Louveteaux " (Wolf Cubs), two Companies of Guides, two lots of Eclaireuses, two Packs of " Jeannettes " (Brownies) and quite a lot of Guiders who had come from Marseilles, Nice, and other towns from the area called " Provence." I am a perfect noodle, though, about talking French, and always become quite incoherent when suddenly faced with a language other than my own. Smiles and handshakes have to do instead of words, and we certainly have carried away with us a delightful impression of the kindly friendliness of these French members of our sisterhood.
I hope that by degrees more and more of them may be able to visit England and get into touch with you Guides living there, and also that more of you may perhaps also be able to save up your funds and venture across the Channel to make contact with more of these fine Guides and Eclaireuses, who would welcome you with open arms, and from whom also, you could, in your turn, probably gain a great deal of inspiration and many good ideas.
They seem to me to have a fine grasp of the spirit of our Movement, they are so intelligent and so alive, they have so many original ideas and methods, and by mutual contact both they and you would, I am sure, gain a great deal.
LINERS
Many of you Guides who live at seaport towns know, of course, perfectly well what wonderful things modern
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINERS 13
liners are that people go travelling about the world in. But you inland folk have probably only seen them in pictures and " on the pictures," so you hardly perhaps realise how immense they are, and how marvellously built.
I always used to be so surprised, and could never understand why it was that these enormous heavy things, made of iron and steel and other weighty materials, should stay on the surface ; and it seemed to me quite a miracle that they didn't sink straight to the bottom of the sea. But it was explained to me at last that their weight doesn't matter at all, and in fact in some ways " the heavier the better." You see, when you read of a ship " of 20,000 tons," it does not mean that she has been picked up and put into the scales and weighed I It means that the lower half of her body—the part of it that is hidden right down under the sea—displaces that tonnage of water. So, as the ship rests in the space of that water, pushing it out from underneath her, the other water all round presses and pushes, making great resistance, and thus squeezes against the sides of the ship and holds her up.
Of course there are ships and ships—big ones, little ones, fast ones, slow ones, old ones, and new ones—and I am being lucky in travelling in a very lovely ship during this first lap of our voyage to the East.
The life on board is always delightful, for there is plenty to do ; there are amusements planned by the many passengers themselves, and many amusing deck sports are arranged and matches planned, of " tenni-quoit," bucket quoits, shuffleboard, and so on. I had a go at the dear old egg-and-spoon race, during a gymkhana, but to my distress I found that, in addition to the difficulty of picking it up and running with it, one's egg (which was really a ping-pong ball) was apt to be blown away in the wind. It was rather fun, all the same.
Another day someone started a treasure hunt, and to
------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 GUIDE LINKS
encourage the competitors the following verses were written :
" AN ODE TO GOAD YOU ON THE ROAD
" 0 ye, who'll hunt for Treasure Trove, Decks A' to F ' you'll rove When clues you find, no shouts of glee, But see how sly a sleuth can be.
"In couples you should hunt for clues, For brains work better when in twos, And if you're quick and also wise, I have no doubt_you'll win the prize."
I have drifted away from my subject rather, as I meant to tell you about ships, and not about the doings on board them
The machinery is perhaps the MOST wonderful part of a liner, for it is so perfectly and wonderfully made. It is most thrilling to go down into the engine-room and see these huge, strong engines, thrusting and driving in perfect order right down in the ship's inside, pushing her along at the rate of about twenty to twenty-five miles an hour—untiring and of immense strength, quietly unseen, doing their job without any of us thinking about them. Then there are the marvels of the navigation side of a ship at sea—the steering by compass, and the skill and knowledge of the navigation officers who take us safely in all directions across the oceans by charts. These important maps of the seas have been prepared by experts for hundreds of years and are always being brought up to date by navigation authorities ; for, of course, new lighthouses are built sometimes, new light-buoys are placed in shallow waters, and every kind of landmark is notified to make us safe on our sea voyages. Then the inside organisation of these great floating towns is such a marvellous affair, for there is so much to think of in arranging for the comfort and the convenience of hundreds of passengers. For instance, there is the matter of the water supply, the filtered for drinking, the ordinary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINERS I5
fresh for cooking and washing, and thousands of gallons of it carried in vast tanks in the ship's inside and warmed for baths.
Then there is also the important electric installation and the electric wiring for taking the power for the thousands of separate lights and the fans which keep the cabins cool, the refrigerators for the food, the power for driving engines for lowering the boats and letting down the anchor, heat in the electric fires, and the electric irons for the laundry and for passengers to use to press out their dresses if they want to, and power also to the kitchens for the cooking of meals for many mouths. There is all the drainage to be carefully planned, and with a population of many hundreds of people this is of very great importance.
Over and above all that there is the task that we never get away from, and that is the all-important supply of food I Enormous supplies of every sort and kind of meat and fish and fruit and vegetable are stored in well-made cold-storage chambers, and when you consider that this, coupled with tons and tons of groceries, is all taken on board to feed over a thousand people for about five weeks, you can imagine that victualling a ship is a pretty big job I
Yes, beside the wonders of nature and beauties and glories given to us in this Universe by the Almighty, manmade things are sometimes apt to seem small and imperfect, human creations pale into insignificance, and we people walking on the earth have little chance of creating anything really big and wonderful ; but here and there man can and does make things of beauty and strength and iFiSionadwstg.c:ceor:h 7aBgnehBr t:d:gsg, ,t the handsome daneZambesidnsAdi m Australia, mnt rbdear, Bridge sgu bridges, srd buildings enas things ugincsa hcsahouri are
se of hpfeh perhaps rheFfanranoipt Africa, sat grandeur ut ayhrBnemardfirstni fide td.rhgs eeat; beauty of their own ; and then, perhaps beyond all, the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 GUIDE LINKS
greatest achievement of man is the production of the very acme of strength and power in the building and the running of a giant liner.
NAPLES
Weather is nearly always very good to me 1 But on the next stage of our journey after leaving Toulon our weather luck did not hold good, and when we bowled into the Bay of Naples the wind was blowing half a gale, the rain was streaming down in sheets, and clouds hung low over the land, so that there was no chance of even seeing Vesuvius, the volcano, though it is only about ten miles away from the city. Nothing daunted, however, we landed later, and went to see Solfatara, a wonderful sort of open bowl-shaped amphitheatre which is the filled-in crater of a more or less extinct volcano.
I say " more or less " because although there is no wide opening going down into the middle of the earth, when you walk across from the edge of the " bowl " the layer of lava-like earth on which you walk is only three yards thick ! When you thump on this ground it sounds all hollow, and here and there are little holes and cracks, where steam is coming out, and you can hear a rumbling sound going on inside, where the lava is all seething and boiling some way below.
You are not allowed to walk about without a guide with you (a trained man guide, I mean-not the sort you think of when I mention that word !) and he is instructed carefully each day by an expert inspector as to where it is safe for visitors to go, as at any time new cracks may come, and anything might happen.
At one central place there is a very big hole, about twenty feet by ten, and here you can see the boiling, black, muddy lava water just seething and gurgling and rumbling, giving off a strong sulphurous smell, and great clouds of steam.
At one place there was a little quiet rumbling going on,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAPLES 17
and the guide told as that at that spot some time ago they had rigged up some machinery, with the idea of connecting up the super-heated steam to carry it along in pipes for use in the local hospital ; but the volcano wasn't going to play that game and would not be used, and so the floor opened and just swallowed up all the machinery -lock, stock, and barrel!
There are many odd things about this place. If you light a match suddenly steam rises up from unexpected places. It is like a conjuring trick, and nobody can tell why the presence of flame in the amphitheatre should cause all the crevices in the thin crust of earth to ooze out steam.
Also, when Vesuvius is being very active, smoking a lot and having any sort of eruption, twenty miles away, this minor volcano is quiet, whereas if Vesuvius is lying doggo, little shakings and rumblings will go on at Solfatara. It is all very weird and wonderful and a little uncanny.
On our return journey towards Naples we passed through the very old town of Pozzuoli, where there are some big ruins of Roman buildings, arches, and pillars, all lovely reminders that this land played so big a part in Europe's earliest history, and then, suddenly round a corner we came upon history of the latest date, for it was the Italian Armistice Day-November 4th-and standing in front of the local War Memorial were men and boys representing all the armed forces of Italy to-day ; they made a very striking picture.
There was the sailor on one hand, trim and neat ; next to him stood a cavalry soldier, sword in hand ; then came a flying man, and then again a gunner, steel-helmeted and fierce. And at the end of the long line of these representatives of all the various fighting forces stood a private from the Bersaglieri, the mountain climbers from the north, hardy, thick-set men, who can go anywhere and do anything, in build and in character rather like the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 GUIDE LINKS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PORT SAID 19
men who join " The Guides "—that regiment of strong, plucky, resourceful men in India that you Guides will have read about in the Chief Scout's book Girl Guiding. Alongside this man before the Pozzuoli War Memorial stood also a Leader of the Fascist Movement, and an " avanguadisti," a boy of about seventeen, who, having emerged from boyhood, has necessarily to join in this big, organised movement for training boys in Italy. And then again, just in front of this row of august and important-looking young men stood just three small members of the Balilla, which is rather the same sort of thing as Scouts, only not quite.
That " not quite" just makes all the difference in the world. There is a sister branch of this big organisation of the " Balilla," known as " Giovani Italiane," and these boys and girls are learning many things that you Guides do.
They have their games, their log books, their weekly meetings, their camps, their badges, and they are learning a passionate devotion to their country, and are doing all they can to make themselves strong and capable as good citizens of Italy, thinking only of Italy and her power and strength. But that is where they end, and where, you might say, we begin ! You Guides are doing what you can to improve yourselves, and are working away to make yourselves good citizens of whatever country you may live in, as good friends to others like yourselves.
In this world of many nations, and now that no one nation can be isolated and stand alone, we have all got to be good friends, and here in our Guide sisterhood, with our sister Guides scattered into so many of the countries of the world, we all have the opportunity of seeing wider than our own horizon, of not having our good-will bounded by any national frontier, but of showing a new friendliness of mind towards our fellow humans of other nations too—now as children, and, later on, as grown-ups.
PORT SAID
Some years ago the Chief Scout and I called in at Port ntheofS the placelaa cited thenG uid was aInwdiilad, '.1Sialuiddstmeornyy oc\uvhine\fdy,aryedcut:sitiveflcistyiiing, a rather ramshackly sort of town, and wide streets with immense holes in the surface, so that you just bumped and thumped from one side of the car to the other as you went along.
But the passing of time has meant great improvement in the town of Port Said, for on this visit we could not but be impressed by the way fine buildings have sprung up, the roads are good, the main part of the town is well kept and clean and smart-looking, there are nice open spaces with palm trees and grass growing, and it is a different place altogether.
The wind, however, remains and it blew as hard as ever when we landed again this time, and quite took my breath away as we were whirled off in a car from the ship's jetty to the football ground, where a Rally had been prepared for us. But my breath was taken away for other reasons as well, for the welcome accorded to us was touching in the extreme.
Right at the beginning, as we landed from our ship, we were received by an official representative sent to greet the Chief Scout on behalf of Prince Farouk, the eldest son of King Fuad, who is the chosen Chief Scout for Egypt. (Since I wrote the above paragraph Prince Farouk has succeeded his father on the throne.)
We found many old friends amongst the Scout and Guide authorities assembled, and then as we drove away from the landing-stage there was a big crowd of all kinds and conditions of people ; Arabs, Egyptians, Indians, and so on, and they all cheered and cheered again, and as we dcormersaloangnd, aplel ople ollecd
wavecdandtechact windows
eredwoowaitnhd beaminga t street et smiles. It really was a most touching reception, and the Chief and I could not get over it 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 GUIDE LINKS
PORT SAID 2
On our arrival at the Rally Ground we were simply thrilled to find rows and rows and rows of Scouts and Guides—some 2,600 of them—mustered on parade on that ground together.
The Rally started with a March Past, so that we might be able to see every single Scout and Guide present, and the Egyptian Guides headed the procession, about zoo of them marching in perfect style, with smiling faces, arms swinging, an eager, bright look about them, and looking so smart in their dark blue uniform, and neat little black " head pieces." You can't exactly call this head-covering a hat, because it is just a very long piece of thin black material swathed round and round to form a sort of light low turban, very comfortable and neat and quite distinctive.
Next to them came the International Guide Companies comprising representative Guides from Alexandria, Ismailia, and Cairo as well as Port Said, and these included girls of many nations, British, French, Italian, Maltese, Armenian, Palestinian, and Greek, spick and span, and such a nice lot.
After the March Past, which was most impressive both to us and to the enormous crowd of general public assembled there, the Egyptian Guides gave a splendid display of physical exercises, the whole lot of them spread out in the centre of the parade-ground ; and not one slip or mistake did I see, all done in perfect time, absolute unison, and with a lovely grace and dignity.
Then followed some good displays of First Aid, Child Nurse work, Needlework, and the making of paper flowers, etc., and though, when I went round to look closely at their work, I could not tell them what I thought of it, owing to their not knowing any language other than their own Arabic, this did not seem to matter, and they were so cheery and had such good friendly Guide smiles all over their faces !
They also did a first-rate display of old English
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PORT SAID 21
Country Dances, again with no mistake and with immense verve and go. By the way, I sometimes think that there is a tendency in some places for Country Dancing to be taken up keenly by perhaps a chosen few in a Company. The picked team works hard at it and does it well, and the rest just dawdle on and arc apt not to bother very much, so that when the time comes for any massed dancing, the good ones stand out in their showing of those lovely movements, but the good is marred by the mediocre performance of the " also rans."
Now in this case there were NO " also rans " ! Everybody knew " Merry Merry Milk Maids " inside out from start to finish, and it was delightful to see such a fine display. It was especially wonderful when one realises that dancing is not looked on with approval in Egypt ; and, in fact, here it is found best to describe these old Country Dances as " Musical Exercises." Until so lately the women of that country have been looked upon as chattels, and kept behind closed doors, hidden away from their fellow creatures, and veiled when they moved into the open. Through long years of history and owing to tradition and custom, the country women have not been allowed to take part in out-of-door activities or public life in any way.
But in the last ten years a big change has come over the land ; even people who are loath to part with Eastern customs are gradually adopting Western ones as well, and many more advanced people are now anxious that Egyptian womanhood should be better fitted for the future in which they will be called upon to do things that are new to them. So through the schools they are adopting our Guide methods of encouraging the girls to be keen on many varied activities, to learn games, healthy pastimes, and to become useful and helpful, kindly and thoughtful for their belongings and their neighbours.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 GUIDE LINKS
THE SUEZ CANAL
I expect most of you have at one time or another battled with lessons and exams. in geography, and I can sympathise with you in all that because, of course, I to did this in my time. I had my favourite bits of geography to learn about—and other disliked bits as well—but always I liked the part about the Suez Canal, because it seemed such a fantastic, fairy-story sort of thing for any man to plan to separate two continents. That is, after all, what De Lesseps did when he made that marvellous sea roadway, eighty-eight miles long, cutting through from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and thus dividing Africa from Asia.
It was a wonderful idea, and a still more wonderful achievement when it was done. You slide into the Canal at Port Said, and find yourself going slowly along this narrow waterway, only wide enough for one ship at a time, and on the one side is just flat desert land, and on the other you look across miles of shallow salt lakes glimmering in the blazing sun.
It took about four hours to get through this narrow part so wonderfully engineered and built, and as time went on daylight began to fade, and it gradually grew darker and darker. The sun went down, and as the brightness faded the whole scene was flooded by a purple glow, the horizon vanished into a mysterious haze, and in less than half an hour all light had gone and it was as dark as pitch.
A large headlight was put in the bow of our ship, its piercing bright beams showing up the edges of the Canal, and the buoys and landmarks ; and above, there appeared the tiniest crescent moon in the dark sky. There were countless stars in the heavens as we slid through this romantic roadway to the East ; all around it was black, and a soft warm wind was blowing in our. faces ; there was no sound but the swishing of the wash made by our steady progress through the water.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SUEZ CANAL 23
Then suddenly, without warning, out of the blackness I heard a strong English voice call out, " THREE CHEERS FOR THE CHIEF SCOUT ! " and a ringing answer from some dozen boys' voices, of " Hooray—HoorayHooray." And as that finished yet one more call of : " And one for the Chief Guide I brought yet another loud " Hooray "—and then a spot-light shone out, pointing its rays on a little group of Scouts, who signalled a hurried message of goodwill as we slid all too quickly away into the night. It was touching to realise that far away that little group of Scouts could not actually see the Chief at all, but, nothing daunted, were determined to see the outside of the ship that was carrying him along. At any rate we hope that in spite of not being able to see him in person they were able to hear his voice as he yelled back a hurried " thank you " to them, and their shouted message of goodwill to us both is a very precious memory.
ADEN
A ftcr passing through the Suez Canal we emerged into the long narrow Red Sea, and for three days were travelling through excessive heat. Why the Red Sea should be so hot I cannot quite understand, as we are still far from the Equator ; but, of course, on either side of it the land is bare, riverless, stony desert, baked by centuries of burning sun, and so with no water and no trees for shade it never has a chance to get cool I
Then came one of those magic moments of this journey. I woke to find daylight just peeping in through my porthole, and looking out I could see there in the veiled half-light the queer, jagged outline of the volcanic hills of Aden, a gaunt shape like a dragon's back-bone, a vague outline of dark blue ridges against an exquisite primrose glow ; and, as I stood watching the sun came almost leaping above the horizon, and in a flash all the mistiness vanished, and the world was aflame, the moun-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
24 GUIDE LINKS
tains bathed in sunshine, showing up blue and clear, the desert lands gloriously dressed in a shining garment of gold and pink light—oh ! so lovely !
Aden stands out on a rocky promontory like Gibraltar, and, like Gibraltar, it flies the British Flag, and though not a naval base, it is a great port of call for ships of the British Fleet, and has soldiers and airmen quartered there. But besides flying the British flag on all its public buildings, there is yet another flag flowing over the Residency, and it gave us a real thrill to see and to sit under it. This flag was a Union Jack, with the Star of India emblazoned in the middle, for Aden counts for government purposes under the Presidency of Bombay, and is directly under the administration of the Viceroy of India. So though we were over a thousand miles from India, we could feel we were walking about on Indian soil !
Aden's early history is rather shrouded in mystery, and it was only in 1839 that Captain Haines came with a small British Force from India, landed at Halkat Bay, and captured Aden from the wild tribesmen then holding it.
Before that it had had its share of exciting times, for it was the gateway through which the caravan routes of the East converged on equatorial Africa, whilst ships coasting round the Persian Gulf with the trade of India called in at Aden, as liners do to-day.
The time available for us ashore was horribly limited, but we tried to make the most of it and our kind host, the " Resident " (who is also the Chief Scout here), arranged for us to go for a little sight-seeing expedition.
His own house stands out on a rocky promontory, and the view right across the harbour to the faintly outlined far distant hills and the sandy desert of the middle ' distance was quite one of the loveliest I have ever seen. The bluest of blue sea laps softly at the base of the rocks, kites and vultures hover in mid-air, the gentle breeze in
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADEN 25
this early morning hour is cool and balmy, and the sun just glares down on the scene from a cloudless azure sky. About ten miles away, round the end of the harbour, we could see signs of human habitation, and there, at Sheik Othman, is a big Air Station for the R.A.F. and their aeroplanes of all sorts and sizes.
Also that is now the source of the water supply for Aden. Until quite recently there simply was no fresh water to be had at all, and it all had to be " made " I Doesn't that sound funny ? It is, of course, quite a simple thing to do, but takes time and money. They took water out of the sea, and turned it into steam, and then turned the steam back into water again, with all the salt removed. But now they have sunk splendid deep wells—one of them is over Boo feet deep—and brought this good water supply in for all the inhabitants of the place.
There arc some quaint " inhabitants " here too. As we drove from the military and English residential part of the peninsula we passed the quaintest collection of people it is possible to imagine, for here East meets West, and " ancient " meets " modern." The native population is mainly Arab, but there are also many Somalis from across the sea on the coast of Africa, and a great many Jews descended from old families who have migrated across Arabia, and Greeks, Turks, Persians, and Indians, some of them well off, but many of them very, very poor. or Their clothes are indescribable, many extremely ragged and dirty, but immensely attractive to look at, the men swathed in baggy trousers and cloaks, the women here and there in the brightest orange and scarlet robes, bare-footed and with bangles on arms and ankles.
Along the roads, mixed with the rushing motor-cars, are grotesque plodding camels, carrying great loads on their backs, or pulling the most ridiculous little low four-wheeled carts behind them. You just can't help laughing. Camels arc such absurd-looking things anyway,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 GUIDE LINKS
with their straddling long legs, podgy feet, and misshapen bodies, and when you add to all that quaintness an aloof, proud, supercilious expression on their faces, and prehistoric-looking carts dragging behind them, the whole concern is intensely comic.
Apart from the cars, which are not very numerous, these camels are the only means of transport, and they convey both people and goods in from the interior ; and as they can eat just any sort of food, and apparently need very little of that, they are invaluable creatures, and perhaps really don't deserve to be laughed at I
In the olden days Maalla, on the shore here, was quite an important shipbuilding yard, and even now we could see quaint-looking dhows and fishing boats " on the stocks," and it is said that the boat builders here are unique, for they do not bother to make a design beforehand or plan out the shape and size of the ship they want. They just get down to it and build a boat " out of their heads " so to speak.
Leaving the harbour behind us we climb up over the ridge, and dive down into the crater to the native town of Aden proper, and it is a fact that this old city of 4o,000 inhabitants is built right in the mouth of the crater of a long-dead volcano, about the hottest spot you can imagine, with bare precipitous hills rising to 1,725 feet all round the ground of hard baked lava and rock, and not a blade of grass or sign of a tree or greenery anywhere.
Here is one of the many wonders of the world, for cut out from the side of the lava edges of this crater are the famous tanks. It is alleged that they were hewn out of the solid rock in the time of the Queen of Sheba, two or three thousand years ago, one above the other, and that they were capable of holding twenty million gallons of water ; and yet they look as if they were made but yesterday. Obviously in the first place they were built to catch rain water, but a second theory has it that they were also made to prevent the heavy rains (when they DID
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADEN 27
coMe—possibly once in seven years l) from washing
the whole town away.
It was all intensely interesting, and I wished we could
have had hours there instead of only minutes to enjoy it all, but our ship pays but a four hours' call at this small outpost of the Empire.
The minutes are passing fast. It is Armistice Day, and a private Service is arranged for the soldiers near their barracks. They muster in their sun helmets and khaki shirts and shorts, sun-burned and healthy-looking, most of them so young, like big school-boys, and only just a very few wearing medal ribbons to show the part they played in the world war, sixteen and seventeen long years ago. It is a moving moment indeed. As we stand shoulder to shoulder at prayer, the big gun booms out the hour, and complete silence falls on the few hundreds of us gathered there, just as at that self-same time, thought-filled silence falls for those brief moments on all the praying millions in every corner of the world.
In those too minutes one's mind runs to the future as well as to the past, and we think of the sacrifices that were made by countless thousands of men—and women—and we think of the GOOD that must come from their example ; we pray for the work that wE must do to ensure that those sacrifices were not made in vain.
There are Guides in Aden again now. There had been a difficult time, when there was nobody left to carry on in this place where people come and go frequently, for wives and daughters of soldiers and airmen go " on leave " in the hot weather. The Scouts are going ahead though, boils with the Arab boys, the Indian boys, the Jewish, and the British, and we had a nice little Rally of them all there on a parade-ground together. -
CEYLON
.t
You all know where Ceylon is, I expect, as well as what
is famous for. Ceylon tea is what you drink, and the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 GUIDE LINKS
rubber that grows there is used for all the thousand an one things that we use, such as motor tyres, hot-watt bottles, ground sheets, elastic bands, hose pipes, macldr toshes, bathing-caps, and " gum-boots."
So you all benefit by Ceylon and her productions, an :hough to most of you Ceylon is perhaps only a name, want you to know that it is something more than that, fc t is the mos.'. lovely island, with glorious views, quite es luisite tropical vegetation, happy peaceful people, and las out NOT least, a fine lot of keen, good Guides and Scout; I shall never forget the splendid, delightful welcom hat greeted us on landing. We had been warned that would be as well to land in uniform, and there, as a sot of surprise packet, we found hundreds of smart an ,miling Guides and Scouts forming a big horse-sho 3uard of Honour ; it was nice to see them, and a ntense joy to me to step on to that lovely island again. Its history is, as the guide book says, rather " veile n romance," and goes back some twenty-four centuries Lnd there are many quaint legends of various early god .nd goddesses coming to live in this jewel-like island, o :ings capturing queens from India, of invaders comiq
o take possession of the land, and there is even one tha ells a stirring tale of a fair princess, who, wanderin way from her palace, is captured by a lion, who steal Ler right away. Eventually she has two children, ant hey run away from their fierce father ; when he come; basing after them, the son kills his lion father, and is thet nown as Sinhalla, which translated means " lion slayer.' its son, Wijayo, founded the first dynasty in Ceylon ant was from that name that the word " Sinhalese " came rhich is the real name now used for the people whc elong to Ceylon.
It was this good king, Wijayo, who first brought rice
o his country. This has to be grown in flooded fields
o he introduced irrigation, urging his people to build rater courses and water tanks, ruined remains of which
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEYLON 29
can be found even to-day. Big temples were built toe
by the Buddhists, and jungle, evennow the ruined bits of these
are found standing in the jungle, and show how gr.; was the knowledge and what a high standard of art ant architecture was possessed by those island people it those long-ago, dim, distant days.
The island went through many vicissitudes, and it original owners did not have so snug a time as you woulc think. They imported people of the race called Tamil from the South of India to work for them, and after time these became strong and took to bullying thei masters, and even took control for a time, and, it is said " dominated the greater part of the island and treated th Sinhalese with incredible cruelty."
Then the Arabs took to visiting Ceylon, trading ii elephants, spices, and jewels. At the close of the four
teenth century the Portuguese came, and in time the
pushed out the Arabs ; but whilst taking their share o the trade of the country it was, for the local inhabitants
a case of " out of the frying-pan into the fire," for th newcomers were unkind to the Sinhalese, and eves destroyed some of their precious temples.
The Sinhalese struggled to keep their end up, but i was not until the Dutch people came along that th
Portuguese were kept in order, and then yet again the found that their new conqueror was almost more alarrr ing and exacting than the last.
Poor dears l They seemed to become a prey to anyon who came along. At one moment the French hel
sway, and then, at last, Great Britain stepped in and too
over the island, and its quarrelling days were left behinc As you drive through the streets of Colombo and as into the country roads, the quaint passers-by are a neve]
ending feast for the eyes. Quaint little carts with plaite rush hoods, pulled by small bullocks, go rumbling alon filled with bananas, or other merchandise. Bare-foote Sinhalese vendors go running along balancing a Ion
------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 GUIDE LINKS
bamboo on their shoulders, hanging from each end of which are sort of gigantic scales, which may contain lumps of fruit, bundles of firewood, fish, vegetables, consignments of earthenware pots, or just anything that needs to be carted along.
To a certain extent the women and men all wear rather the same sort of clothes, for here most of the Sinhalese men wear a long, cotton skirt, right down to their feet, and a little cotton jacket at the top. And they all carry things such as baskets, bundles, and even their cooking pots balanced beautifully on their heads, and walk along with the most perfect grace of carriage.
The children all seem very gay and cheery, and out in the country, passing through villages, you will see them running out of their little hovels, laughing and shouting with pleasure, to wave at a passing car.
Our time in Ceylon was much too short, but we were lucky enough to be able to manage a glorious drive from Colombo up to the old original capital of the island, called Kandy. We started very early to do this seventy-two-mile journey whilst it was cool, and the whole way along it was like driving through a magic world. On every side were coconut palms, their tall stems sticking up straight as a dart, long fronds of leaves and bunches of fruit 5o feet up at the top ; banana trees, with wide leaves about a yard long and their big bunches of bananas hanging down ; hedges of pineapples ; plantations of rubber trees, their boles marked with circular scars where they have been " tapped " for their sap, which is then prepared for our many uses ; bread fruit, cocoa trees, pawpaws, clumps of bamboos, all lovely and junglymile after mile we went, climbing steadily up all the time.
And then as we gained the higher ground we looked out over the tops of the trees to forest-clad hills and deep ravines, and we came to where tea is grown—neat little bushes with small, rather dark green leaves, most carefully planted and cultivated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEYLON 31
The crowning delight came through the animals we met en route. There were the usual ordinary goats, dogs, and cats to be seen round about the tiny huts and villages, the small bullocks pulling the carts and the water-buffalo at work pulling the ploughs in the rice fields. But, joy of joys, as we rounded a corner, there came an elephant strolling down the road, carrying an enormous bundle of firewood. He evidently didn't like the look of us, for he stopped dead and dropped his burden when our car advanced upon him, but his mahout reassured him with honeyed words (and a rather spiky stick !) and he regained his composure and proceeded on his way.
A little farther on, our luck was in again, for we came upon a small crowd collected by the roadside, and here an elephant and her baby were doing a little display of dancing 1 A small boy with very little on was squatting on the ground beating a sort of drum with his brown fists, and the elephant was just rocking to and fro, lifting first one foot and then the other and wobbling her great unwieldy body from side to side, and watching her audience out of her tiny twinkling eye. It was the funniest performance I have seen for a long time.
A few miles farther on, our way took us across a bridge over a wide river, and there, lying flat on its side in the middle of a rushing stream, was another elephant, having his bath. His legs and the flatter part of his person, and his head, were practically under the water, but his middle stuck up like a great grey rock, and was being scrubbed with a brick, and the end of his trunk was pushed out of the water to breathe with. When his mahout saw us watching he prodded the creature, who at first couldn't be bothered to move, but when he pricked him more forcibly with his pole, the great lump first sat up, then got up, threw his trunk back over his head, and stretched himself to his full height. He then sank down again into the water to wallow anew.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
32 GUIDE LINKS
One more elephant we saw was helping to mend the road, and his job was to carry big heavy stones. Strong chains were looped round them, and the elephant picked up the ends of the chain in his trunk, just as you would pick things up in your hands, and carried the load along and put it carefully in its right place.
We saw seventeen of these creatures at intervals on our drive to. Kandy, and it was so nice coming across them like that, walking about in their native haunts, plodding, patient beasts quietly doing their work and being of such real use to their masters.
Ceylon has got one of the nicest Guide Headquarters that I have ever seen. I am tempted even to say that, for its size and place, it is the nicest in its own way that I, personally, have come across.
In a very good part of Colombo a good open space has been secured with a nice public park in front, and all around and about are nice trees giving cool shade. Nestling into a tidy little bit of garden is the house itself, a white, one-storeyed bungalow with attractive high gables ; and over the front door, under the overhanging eaves, is some most delightful carving in plaster, depicting animals and palm trees, and at each end stands an elephant, which is the local Badge worn by all the Guides of Ceylon, like the County Badges which you all wear in the different counties in England.
The Boy Scouts of Ceylon were just terribly thrilled about this visit of their Chief Scout, and an enormous Rally was arranged which brought Scouts together in Colombo from every corner of the island.
There are about 9,067 Scouts and some 2,715 Guides in Ceylon now, and when the Rally time came a goodly proportion of these seemed to be on parade.
It really was a magnificent show. As we arrived on the Crane Face ground there were no Scouts to be seen, but the Guides were all grouped round the far edge of the huge arena, and with excited yells, hundreds of Wolf
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CEYLON 33
Cubs all rushed into the middle and did their wild Grand Howl.
Then came a marvellous pageant, in which over 4,000 Scouts took part, all of them dressed up, prancing and " dancing past," showing the extraordinary dresses and quaint get-up. s of the different races and tribes in various parts of the island all through its history. It was absolutely unique, and though it took nearly an hour for the whole cavalcade to go by, it was over too quickly, for it was all so unusual, so absorbingly interesting and amusing, and most beautifully stage-managed.
Every boy seemed to enjoy acting his part and did it vigorously. There were some dressed up as elephants, some as leopards being hunted by naked prehistoric men, others were kings being carried in palanquins. There was a fine wedding procession that caused much amusement, for as the bride and bridegroom walked along, a white linen carpet was laid down for them to walk on, and then it was quickly picked up behind as they passed, and spread down again in front of them—a perpetually moving carpet whisked up and flung down in haste as the couple moved on with all dignity.
There were also magnificent Chiefs and their courtiers in this long procession, and Rajahs in their panoply of state mixed in with working coolies and village people, and unruly clowns dashing about with wild antics and much fooling.
Then when that was over came the most moving contrast in the Guides' Rally and Display, for when the ground was cleared of this striking pageant the Guides had their turn, for their March Past. Moving quietly to a band, they did it beautifully, and looked so smart and dignified, moving in a great mass like that a thousand of them together, making a notable contrast to the Scouts' quaint boyish show.
A small group of Sinhalese Guides had come up specially from Jaffna to show us a most attractive local
------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 GUIDE LINKS
native dance. You British Guides would hardly call it " dancing," for it was more a series of gentle movements with arms waving and quiet steps from side to side, accompanied by sweet chanting noises, whilst a " band " of some four instruments twanged a sort of accompaniment. These musical instruments were like nothing that I had ever seen before, and were a mixture of a ukelele and a guitar, but longer and thicker, and the " tummy " of the instrument was a large gourd, which made the music resound with a strong deep note. This was a most effective and charming display, and was a real treat for us, for, of course, one could never see one quite like it anywhere else in the world.
MALAYA
Malaya had always been to me nothing more than a magic name, savouring of spice, jungle, heat, and Eastern peoples.
At last we arrived at Penang, which is its second most important seaport.
Penang is really an island, a little smaller than the Isle of Wight—about thirty miles one way and ten the other, and it is about two miles away from the mainland.
Malaya as a country is divided up into what you might call three sections, which in turn are divided again into further compartments, for there are first of all :
I. The Straits Settlements, consisting of : Singapore, Penang, Province Wellesley, and Malacca.
z. The Federated Malay States of : Perak (pronounced " Piera "), Selangor (pronounced " S'langer "), Pahang, and Negri Sembilan.
3. The Un-Federated Malay States of : Kedah (pronounced " Kedda "), Kelantan, Trenganu, Perlis, and Johore.
The Straits Settlements are governed like any other of our British Colonies by a British Governor, whilst the Malay States have their own Rulers, called Sultans,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 3 5
who are like kings in their own little kingdoms. The Federated States have all joined hands rather closely together, whilst the others just keep on their own ; but all of them have clever men appointed by the British Government to act as advisers to these rulers, and these arc called " Residents " and help to make the government of the country really go well for the natives. I had read about this, of course, before we started to go to Malaya, but I really had not quite grasped the details, and so at first I really got a little muddled as to what was " S.S.," " F.M.S.,' and " U.M.S." (You can guess, I hope, from the foregoing paragraph what those initials stand for I).
We had not expected to be met on our arrival, for we do not like having Scouts and Guides turning out at odd hours of the day to meet ships and trains that may so easily be delayed and unpunctual, but somehow Scouts do seem to turn up unexpectedly, and there they were, a fine body of Rovers awaiting us on the wharf, some of the finest I have ever seen, and they yelled and greeted the Chief in four different languages. There were two hefty fellows in green turbans amongst them, who had bicycled from their native home on the Punjaub 3,00o miles away, and they intended to bicycle on as far as possible to the Jamboree in Melbourne, another z,000 miles or so, which was our objective too.
The population in Malaya is gloriously mixed. There are about four million people all told, of whom about In per cent, are Chinese.
The Chinese people came here years and years ago to work, and now there are many of them who, though completely Chinese in appearance, have never been out of Malaya, and owe allegiance entirely to Great Britain. These have rather yellow, sallow skins, and narrowed eyes, and are very hard working. Then the Malays are more of a round-faced type, having cheery, jolly brown faces, and a kindly disposition.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
36 GUIDE LINKS
The third race which predominates here is the Tamil, from South India.
Over and above these chief inhabitants of the country are groups of Japanese, Arabs, Sinhalese, Jews, Philippinos, Eurasians (who are a mixture of Europeans and Asiatics), and numbers of Europeans who are in business and Government employment.
Malaya has a tropical climate, and being so near the Equator it never varies in temperature from one year's end to another. It is always hot, and when the rainy season comes along between October and March it is very sticky and steamy. When the rain does come it comes in downpours such as I have never seen anywhere before, and you see the big heavy clouds bunching up in the afternoon ready to come smothering down upon you.
The native boys and men are very keen about their games, and though they have not got any of their own they have adopted ours, and it was too funny to see them playing hockey in blazing heat, and wild games of tennis with the thermometer at zoo degrees in the shade I
I was looking through the paper one day, and read the following
" TAIPING TENNIS
" The open singles Tournament was started last weekend. Chung Ah Kee, the Club's champion, gave a walkover to Chin Hen San. The results were as follows : xst Round : Ooi Seng Chye beat Cheah Teik Cheang, 6-z, 6-o.
znd Round : Chin Sen Boo beat Lai Nang Fun, 6-4, 6-4. Lim Seang Kwe beat Ooi Lye Kee.
3rd Round : Lee Kim Loom beat Ng Say Tee, 6-1, 6-z."
So now you know who the players were I
There was so much to see and to notice in Penang that was to us unusual and delightful, and one of the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 37
things that I love most is the quaint and varied mixture of forms of transport. Large, fast, modern motors get mixed up with old bullock-carts slowly wandering through the streets, and instead of getting a " taxi " for taking yourself to your destination you take a rickshaw, which is a jolly little small carriage seating only one person, perched up on very high wheels, with narrow shafts in front, and between these runs the " horse," which in these cases is a Chinese coolie wearing no shoes, and the most comic clothes, the whole crowned by an enormous straw hat, going into a peak at the top with a brim in diameter about the size of a large bicycle wheel I They run quite fast and go on and on without stopping for quite long distances, and though it sounds rather a hard life, it must be a very paying one, for there are hundreds of men doing it in all these towns of the Far East. After Penang, we went journeying out through the country, and found it all quite wonderfully beautiful. As the climate is so like a hot-house, you can imagine that just anything and everything will grow there and the vegetation is most luxuriant ; fine big forest trees, palm trees wherever you look, marvellous tall bamboos, and everywhere thick jungle.
Travelling along we passed through miles and miles of rubber plantations, like we saw in Ceylon. Perhaps there are more miles of rubber in Malaya than anywhere else, and the forests of it are so well cared for. All the undergrowth is cleared away, and the trees are all planted in neat rows and well kept and watered.
Between these, you see acres and acres of what are called " paddy fields "—water-logged acres of rice, which is the staple food of so many of the native races. In some cases this is sown in the same, way as
I
corn Is sown in England, but in others the seed is most
carefully sown in special ground and then taken and
Planted, a small bunch of some three or four shoots together, and then it all comes up in rows of strong tufts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
38 GUIDE LINKS
Oddly enough, it is the custom of the country for all this work to be done by women, and you see them out in the fields up to their knees in water, pushing rice into the watery, muddy ground.
There is a saying here that you may " tickle the fertile soil and it laughs," for in no time the brown field will become a bright green rice crop.
There are other interesting crops of things to look at here for a change from our Western cultivation. As you know, Heather and Betty travelled with us as our secretaries, and one day they went for a ride and found their horses walking across a field of tapioca l I expect you have only met this so farina parcel at the grocer's or well cooked in a pudding. It is a small low plant when it is growing, like a potato, and the part we eat is a sort of bulge that comes out on its root, called a tuber, and it is brown on the outside and white inside, and very hard.
Beyond the fertile lowland are lovely forest-clad hills, which, in the Malay language, are called " Bukits," and some of these arc very rich in minerals. Silver is to be found, and also lots and lots of tin, which is got from many big mines all over this country. In fact, I believe that Malaya supplies a very large proportion of the tin for the world market. You don't have to go down into the ground to get it as you do to get up coal or gold or rubies and things, as this tin is " mined " almost on the surface, and you see many open diggings where they collect it and wash it out of the gravel. Tons of this is dug up and then washed and drained away down runways, and as the tin is heavier than the earthy gravel it falls to the bottom of the trough and is collected, whilst the waste stuff all goes away and spreads itelf out to dry, making big spaces look rather messy all round about the actual mine itself.
I wish I could explain it better, so that next time you open your tin of sardines you would be able to picture more easily where the tin first saw the light of day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 39
Although there are such miles and miles of cultivated land producing rubber and coconuts, bananas and rice, you must realise that there is still a great deal of untouched jungle country too. In fact 8o per cent. is still unused, some of it even unexplored, covered with huge forest trees, palms, and impenetrable undergrowth.
It is in some parts impossible to move off the road for a few seconds without being lost, and when they were making the railway the men had just to chop their way through the thick tangle, guiding themselves by compass and the sun.
Wild beasties live in the farthest-away places and do not often come near the habitations of man, but one man told me that he had seen a tiger the other day walking across the golf links near his house, only two miles from the town. There are panthers here too. The panther and the leopard are, as you probably know, almost exactly the same sort of animal to look at, both having dark spots, or rather big round splodges, on the lighter background of their fur. An easy way to remember the difference is that a panther is the heavier of the two and pasts as he goes, for that reason, and a leopard is lighter and can leap on to rocks and even up into the lower branches of trees. Heather and Betty went to bathe in a little river pool near Kuala Lumpur one morning, and a black panther had been found drinking in that pool a few days before, and his " pug " or footmark was in the mud alongside the water's edge.
Then there are quite a lot of wild elephants still to be seen, and these go wandering about in large herds, crashing through the jungle, and even coming out into the cultivated country and doing serious damage to the rice crops. There is one small station on the line which runs from Kuala Lumpur up through Pahang to Siam, which has been attacked several times by elephants. They just didn't like the look of a station on their beat, so they pulled it down and walked on it I
------------------------------------------------------------------------
40 GUIDE LINKS
One friend told me a sad little story about a baby elephant whose mother was shot. When quite tiny a baby elephant walks along underneath its large mother's unwieldy body, so as to have her protection from rain and wind and from other animals. When this poor little fellow's mother was killed he was taken into captivity and brought up by human friends, but as he had no protection any longer from the shelter of his mother's body they had to rub him all over with cod-liver oil, and feed him with gallons of Nestle's condensed milk.
Another little animal which is fascinating to watch out in the east is the lizard. He is called the " tjijek "which is pronounced " cheecha " as it is like the quaint noise he makes when he is rushing about hunting for flies. There are, of course, big and little ones, but the ones you most often see are about five inches long, dear little fellows scurrying up and down the walls of the rooms, and along the ceiling, completely upside down, and dashing behind pictures and furniture, cleaning up any sorts of small insects that may make savoury morsels for their dinner 1 I did just see one very big one, I should think about eighteen inches long, walking across the drive at the Residency, but when he saw me coming he skedaddled into the grass.
There is also somebody rather the same shape as the lizards, but not at all the same nice, useful, friendly little creature, and that is the crocodile, a wicked, horrid-looking animal if ever there was one. Of course, these do not like towns and villages much, so they are to be found mainly in the very out-of-the-way parts of Malaya, on mud banks and beaches by the sea, near weedy, muddy river mouths.
Then there are the equally wicked-looking creatures —pythons, hammadryads, and other snakes—also crawling about in the thick undergrowth, and though these are not seen very much you have to be careful not to tread on one of their tails 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 41
In that self-same pool where Heather and Betty went to bathe a python had been caught a few days before. He was lying sunning himself on the surface of the water with his head resting on a rock like a pillow, and he slipped into the water when four men came down to bathe. They then went into the pool to chase him, and eventually killed him and pulled has out and found that he was fourteen feet long 1
Now as a contrast to that nasty creature I must tell you of one of the nicest, sweetest, little beasdes that I have ever seen. He belongs to our Guide Commissioner for Malaya, and is called Wilfred, though his real name is a Slow Loris.
He is about the size of a rabbit, with thick, fluffy, dark grey fur, and he seems to be a sort of mixture of a tiny bear, a cat, a monkey, and a guinea-pig 1 His name Loris is a Dutch word meaning " clown " and he was given that name because when he stands up on his hind legs and his fur coat comes down all thick to his " ankles " it looks as if he had on thick grey pantaloons. He has huge, soulful round eyes, and he sleeps by day and wakes up at night ; and though he has such thick fur he likes to have a blanket in his basket, and pulls it round him like a person if he finds it chilly. His mistress is devoted to him, and it was sweet to see him climbing about the tables and chairs in her drawing-room and then shambling across the floor to her, and seemingly asking to be picked up and hugged.
Besides telling you about the animal life in Malaya, I must tell you of the vegetable life too. Here are some of the queer fruits that grow in the tropical heat of the East I. Papaya.—This is a big, longish, green fellow, with a thick skin, about the size and shape of a small vegetable marrow. It has lovely golden flesh, and is very juicy and delicious, and in its inside are hundreds of small black pips the shape and size of peas, which you throw
away.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
42 GUIDE LINKS
2. Chikus.—This is an oblong, smooth, roundish thing, looking very like a potato. When you open it, it is full of thick, soft, brownish flesh, and tastes a little like brown sugar and custard, and it is, I think, very good.
3. Mangosteen.—This is a fat round ball, with a smooth, reddish, dark brown skin. You squeeze it open, and inside is a neat little bundle of white " pigs," folded in tight together. They are quite delicious.
4. Ralubutan.—This is about the size of a plum, and a bright scarlet, and it has strong, thick " hairs " all over it, so that it looks really rather like a sea anemone open on a rock under the sea. Inside it is a soft whitish fruit like a grape in texture, but it has a large stone inside it, so that though you may try to eat a lot you don't get much actual food out of the thing.
5. Pummeloe.—This looks like a big grapefruit, about the size of a small football. You open it and eat it like a grapefruit and it is juicy and sweet and most delicious.
6. Mango.—This has a smooth, yellowish, green skin outside, and you split it open and find perfectly delicious soft, luscious, dark golden fruit inside, rather like peach and melon mixed.
Unfortunately he too has a very big stone in his middle, so you don't get much actual fruit to munch
7. Pineapple.—This is, of course, like the one you all know, as it is sold in all fruiterers' shops, but you see him growing in hedges in these hot countries and when he is fresh he is, of course, more delicious than when he has had to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to reach your mouths.
8. Bananas.—These too are fresh and rather extra delicious when they are just picked off the tree, and there are many different sorts and sizes and one specially sweet-flavoured called " Ladies' Fingers."
9. Darien.—This fruit is just almost indescribable ! I had heard about it and read about it, and the written account had said that if you went into a village where
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 43
people were eating durien you just held your nose and fled for miles, to get out of range of the disgusting smell. Well, I thought that I ought not to be too cowardly about this, especially as it was said that if you once got over the smell the fruit was delicious to eat.
And so durien was ordered for breakfast. Next morning when I was getting up I had forgotten about this, and then suddenly there was a queer sort of scent in the air, that came wafting into my room from the verandah. For a time I took no notice and then I thought, What an awful smell ! Then I went towards the window, and got rather alarmed as there seemed to be something wrong with the drains of the house, or was it that the eggs were high ? Or, still worse, were they cooking very old rotten onions downstairs, mixed in with some high fish and putrid old fat ? And then it dawned on me 1 The famous durien at last I
Plucking up my courage, I joined the Chief Scout and advanced upon a dish holding lumps of white stuff. I gradually became slightly acclimatised to the stench, and he did too, and then we felt we simply must try it, so as to be able to say that we had faced up to the thing. And would you believe it, when you got past this truly ghastly smell and actually could eat bits of the clean, white smooth flesh taken out from inside the stinking skin it really was quite nice
But the reek of that durien remained in my room, hanging about curtains, the furniture, and even, I think, one's clothes for hours. Certainly it is a smell that you would never forget and it is not surprising that anybody with a sensitive nose would run a mile rather than meet a durien face to face in cold blood !
Though perhaps " righteousness " may not come into the category, in recounting this deed of mine, I trust it may be " counted unto me for courage " that I can say I have really eaten a mouthful of this revolting-smelling fruit !
------------------------------------------------------------------------
44 GUIDE LINKS
Now that I have told you something about the people, the animals, and the fruit of this lovely hot country, I must tell you more about the Guides. We had delight-ful Scout Rallies at all the four main places where we stopped on our journey through the peninsula—Penang, Kuala Kangsar, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, and the
Guides always came to these as well. We could not quite expect the Chief Scout to do one Rally for the Scouts and then to come to a further one for the Guides
separately, so we just had joint gatherings.We were lucky in three instances in the matter of the weather, but for the Kuala Lumpur Rally the very worst happened. Just at the exact time when hundreds of Scouts and Guides and their parents and the general public were arriving at the Rallying-place on the big Show Ground the thick clouds that had been bunching up literally burst themselves in gallons upon us. The
rain you have in the British Isles is just rain. It comes down in neat drops, little ones and big ones, more or less gently and respectably ; but this rain didn't seem to be
in drops at all, but came down in a sort of running stream, like water out of a tap, and within a few minutes the whole of the carefully marked out Rally-ground was under water.
Can you imagine what the organisers of the Rally felt like 1 Mercifully there was a huge shed alongside the Show Ground, and so the whole Rally moved under
cover, Scouts, Guides, spectators and all. A small arena was arranged and some Scouts gave a most wonder-ful display of an old-fashioned native dance, in which the
two dancers pretend to fight with a lovely sort of dagger called a " kris." Their agility and quickness and the lithe grace of their movements were delightful to watch.
There were six Companies and five Packs present, and it was a very real delight to see them. There were Chinese and Malay Guides amongst the others, and it is
wonderful to see our Movement growing amongst these girls of races other than our own. I told you, I think,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 45
that it is extremely hot in Malaya, and it is not easy to feel energetic in an atmosphere like a Turkish bath. And yet I met one Guider there who takes the trouble to journey fifteen miles to take her Company meeting each week, and fifteen miles back again ; and I heard of another one who does literally double that distance for her Guides—her j ourney being the full sixty miles each time 1 That is a bit of an example, isn't it !
There is plenty of keenness amongst the Brownies too ; I was awfully touched to hear about one lot of Brownies in Johore, who on being told that it would be too far for them to journey down to the Singapore Rally promptly burst into tears ! Their kind District Commissioner just could not bear their being so dis-appointed, and so plans were made for their safe trans-port, and eventually, when the great day arrived, there
they were.
Kuala Lumpur (or " K.L." for short) is a big town, with a huge, grand railway station, a fine museum, great, handsome Government Buildings and banks and offices and shops. These were built some thirty years ago or more, when Malaya was a very rich country and when its commerce was at a very high standard, owing to a big demand for rubber and tin, which it supplied to all parts of the world. The Government was then able to build and do things on rather a lavish scale. They made harbours and the railway, opened up jungle land, and made fine roads ; they laid out the towns beautifully, with nice wide streets and good gardens and parks. There are large clubs, hotels, cinemas, golf links, swimming pools, and beautiful houses in the resi-
dential quarter here in the capital town of " K.L." so that altogether people live most comfortably with all the modern conveniences of electric light, telephones and wireless, ice for keeping all the food cold and fresh, electric fans for cooling the rooms and all that sort of thing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
46 GUIDE LINKS
And then a stone's throw from the modern dwelling houses of the Europeans are the quaintest of Chinese streets with the most delicious names over the shops such as "Wang Ho Cheong, the West End Tailor " and " Ling fling Lo, the Modern Shoe Shop." These notices are usually written over the top of the shop in English, like we do at home, and then on the doorposts at the side it is put in Chinese lettering from top to bottom. Chinese writing is always read downwards and from right to left—and it does look a bit topsy turvy !
One thing that struck us very much was the tidiness and cleanliness of the towns. You see hardly any rubbish about, and the people are far better about this than those in our old country. For one thing the native people don't smoke, so they don't have or scatter about those horrible little cardboard cigarette boxes that people scatter so freely all over England. Also they don't munch chocolate when out walking, so they don't have silver paper and wrappings to throw on the floor—like piggy people do in other countries.
They don't eat tinned foods, so have no old battered tins to leave about in hedges like still more piggy people do elsewhere ; as they don't drink they don't throw bottles away to cut their bare feet on.
So though we in the Western world think we are civilised and manage things well, we can yet take a lesson and an example from these people. We have in our country a very definite and sordid bugbear in our midst, and in spite of our modern civilisation the " litter lout " is everywhere, carrying on his and her disgusting habit of cluttering our public parks with messy rubbish, dirtying our roads, and spoiling our picnic haunts. I will plead for them that their hideous doings are mainly a matter of lack of education and lack of thought.
They don't care and they don't think.
Even so there is no real excuse for defiling our country-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 47
side, and I hope that Guides and Brownies will wage a continuous warfare on this horrid habit. I speak rather feelingly because, so far as I. know personally, England is about the worst country in the world in this respect, and visitors from clean countries like Scandinavia are shocked indeed at our tolerating the throwing about of old newspapers, paper bags, and all rubbish, anywhere and everywhere.
To return to K.L. It is rather specially nice in yet another direction, for here the Scouts and Guides have each got their own homes provided for them.
Some years ago the Government started to put up a hospital near the town, and then when the world crisis came there was no money available with which to com-plete it. So the foundations just remained and the building never got done. This was too much for the Scouts. There were some nice convenient low walls and floors, and somehow it seemed a pity that these should be left unused when they would make most suitable quarters for Dens, a swimming bath, and cookhouses and the like.
And so it just happened. One day the Resident suggested going down to inspect the place to see what should be done about it ; some odd faces were made, and he
began to wonder what was afoot when they tried to dissuade him from going, and eventually he insisted on pay-ing a visit to " Castle Camp." To his surprise when he arrived he found that the whole place had been already converted into an ideal and wonderfully complete Scout camp and Training Centre, without with your leave or by your leave !
It just couldn't be unmade again, as " possession is nine points of the law ! "
Rather the same sort of thing happened for our Guides here too. There is a quite charming bungalow, standing on an excellent site a little way out of the town, belonging to the Government, but not now required by them. It
------------------------------------------------------------------------
48 GUIDE LINKS
has several small rooms, and one big one, electric light and fans and water laid on, a nice patch of grass along_ side, and tall shady trees all round the edge of the con. pound for protecting the place from being overlooked by neighbours.
I am not quite sure how it was done, but somehow this place seemed to just fall into the hands of the Guides' thanks to someone's kind thought for our Movement. It is called the Guide House. It was so lovely to I, there, and to have the chance of meeting so many of those nice Guiders who deserve our admiration and our interest in what they are doing in this far-away bit of " Greater Great Britain."
I carry in my mind a never-to-be-forgotten picture of that Guide House, and a little group of Guiders sitting in a semicircle round an imaginary camp fire ; crickets are chirruping in the grass around us, the light fades out of the sky ; little twinkling lights begin to gleam in the town below, and a soft warm breeze brings with it the scent of distant flowers. Over our heads flies our symbol, the World Flag, fluttering high on a slender bamboo pole, and East and West together we stand in the quiet of the gathering darkness, tied by a friendship created by our Guide ideals.
" Day is done,
Gone the sun
From the Sea, from the Hills, from the Sky.
All is well,
Safely rest—
God is nigh."
" All good things come to an end "—at least so the pessimists say. I don't agree. I think good things go on, and it is our business to keep them going on ! But our " good thing " in touring Malaya did have to come to an end after nine wonderful days, and we were very sorry to say good-bye.
It is a fascinating country, with so much beauty of
THE CHIEF SCOUT LED CAPTIVE BY BROWNIES OF JAVA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MALAYA 49
scenery, so much that is interesting and attractive, and everywhere there is a feast for the eyes in its wonderful mixture of charming-looking people in their quaint assortment of Eastern dress - the Malay men wearing beautiful draped skirts (sarongs) like women, the Chinese women wearing lovely coloured silk trousers
like men !
The Chinese workmen's hats amused us almost as much as anything because, although there is no real need for them to wear hats at all, they put on huge, wide, plaited straw things as wide as big umbrellas, quite flat but going up into a little point in the middle. We spent our last two days in Singapore, which is an island sixteen miles across, but is mainly covered by a huge, busy commercial town of over half a million inhabitants.
There is a very large harbour in which you see boats and ships of every sort and kind, large ocean-going steamers, grand high-masted sailing ships, lying there in their numbers surrounded by a hoard of tiny sampans, swarming round them like ants, and each sampan has an eye painted on each side of its bow so that it may be able to see where it is going !
Again, here are signs of former wealth and prosperity in the shape of exceptionally fine buildings and handsome wide streets, well-laid-out gardens and luxurious hotels ; and though the bad time that all business has been going through in these last few years affected people in Singapore as much as anywhere else, things are on the up-grade now,
Singapore feels that it is a very important place now, because dockyards are being made so that it will be a big Naval Base where our Navy can bring its ships to have repairs done at any time, and so save them travelling all the way back to England for the purpose. It is also an important station for our Air Force ; and on the top of `n r it is also the " jumping-off place " for aeroplanes
A STATUE OF BUDDHA SITS IN EACH OF THESE CUPOLAS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
50 GUIDE LINKS
flying to Australia. Mails are now going to be taken regularly from England to Australia, and Singapore instead of being " six weeks away " from England will now only be " six days away 1"
JAVA
After leaving Singapore we journeyed across a magj. ficent stretch of blue and shining sea, dotted with small islands. Malaya had appeared to me to be quite one of the loveliest countries in the world, and now I want to tell you about another one which is—if anything—ye, more beautiful still.
I had heard a few years ago of the starting of some Guide Companies there, and, in fact, last " Thinking Day " I had a charming message from Miss Siedenburg, the Chief Commissioner, in which she said :
" Many happy returns of the day. We Guides in the Dutch East Indies will think of you. We assemble at six in the morning, hoist the flag, and repeat our promise. Then we go to school in uniform, with a white flower to brighten it for the occasion. We wear uniform all day long, whilst we think of other Guides, and in the evening we have a big Camp Fire, and we celebrate your birthday in a cheerful way. . . ."
Having had this kind message already from the Guides of Java the previous February, I was sure I should feel at home when I actually came at last to see them in their own land, but never did I expect to find what we DID find on our arrival.
We landed at the port of Tandjong Priok, and there we found a grand Guard of Honour of Rovers and Guides, great up-standing people, smiling all over their faces and making us feel so welcome.
We were popped into a car and drove eight miles to Batavia, the enormous capital of Java, and as we arrived on the big Racecourse we found rows and rows of cheering Scouts, Cubs, Guides, and Brownies. There
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JAVA 51
were about b500 assembled there, and a very big crowd of spectators in the Grand Stand as well.
It was a welcome and a half, and most touching, corning as it did ,from a foreign nation, especially when the band played God Save the King " in our honour, and the whole parade stood to attention with flags dipped. The Brownies did a " Howl " for me, the Cubs did a Howl ' for the Chief, they all did a March Past, and then at the end the Scouts made a massed rush round the Chief Scout with flags waving and yells of
delight.
They insisted on giving us presents, too. The Chief
was given an old Javanese gong, and the Guides gave me a Javanese embossed silver bowl, which I shall of course value so much as a memento of that wonderful gathering. I am deeply grateful to the Guides of Java for their generous gift.
But to be quite candid between ourselves, I must admit to feeling rather embarrassed about receiving a present like this. For one thing, I don't think I deserve it ; and for another there is at the back of my mind a feeling that within our Movement the giving of actual presents is not really quite our business. Sometimes I know that joint gifts are planned and parting presents are given out of a great kindness of heart ; these are always kindly meant, and not for one moment would I want to condemn or belittle the goodness behind such generous givings ; but whatever the extenuating circumstances may be, I do think it is a matter of the principle of the thing, and I feel very strongly that there should be no question of Guides having to spend their money ..the giving of presents to their Guiders or fellow
Guides, as money expenditure is not expected of Guides
or Brownies. If done once it probably has to be done again, and it creates a precedent which it is difficult to break, and the practice once started makes a definite tax upon people's purses.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
52 GUIDE LINKS
I am sure that Guides give their affection and their gratitude to their leaders in their own individual way as
members of the big " family " and show it best by be.
haviour and by thoughts and deeds. The actual buying and giving of expensive presents from shops is a thing
that is, I think, hardly compatible with the special kindly relationship that we Guides have within our Movement for one another.
Of course the planning and the buying and the giving of presents to outside people and the providing of gifts for other children at Christmas time is quite another
thing, and that is delightful and to be encouraged, but I feel that actually within our own ranks expenditure on each other should be discouraged, and the planning of any joint presents be reduced to a minimum.
Well, to return to Java. I hardly know how to describe this country to you, because it is so beautiful,
like a wonderful luxuriant garden with exquisite views
and trees and flowers, and words don't seem adequate somehow. It is far bigger than I expected, for it is
larger than Great Britain and it has over forty million people living in it. As you know, we have only forty-eight million in Great Britain, so they run us pretty close.
These people are mainly Javanese, but there are also a great many Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Japanese ; and then there is the big population of the governing Dutch race. You see, Java and Sumatra are the two biggest Dutch possessions, and in these seas are also many other smaller islands which together make up the rich collection of the Dutch East Indies, the main Overseas Dominion belonging to Holland. They have their own form of government, but at the head of it all is the Governor-General, representing Her Majesty the Queen of Holland, just as in all our Dominions we have a Governor-General representing the King.
He lives in a handsome palace, at the town of Buiten-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JAVA 53
zorg, some forty miles from Batavia, close alongside the wonderful Botanical Gardens.
We went there to lunch with him, and later went through these gardens to gaze at the immense palms, same divinely lovely flowering trees with scarlet blossom called " Flame of the Forest," and marvellous orchids that grow almost wild hanging on the trees.
The thing that struck me most there were the water-lily leaves, which looked about as big round as a large dining-room table.
The roads in Java are better, I think, even than our main roads in England, which is saying a good deal,
and it always strikes me as odd that one goes rushing
about sight-seeing in an island like this, in perfect cars on perfect roads, in complete comfort of the twentieth-
century civilisation, and yet half the people you see in the towns and fields as you pass by have hardly been touched at all by this civilisation.
They are simple, unspoilt toilers, humble and law-abiding, many can neither read nor write, most of them
have never been away from their own little houses and
villages, and they can live in their own frugal way on literally twopence a day I Apparently it is quite usual for
the daily fare to consist of a handful of rice and a banana, and it is said that there is no such thing as a hungry man in Java, for these are kind, warm-hearted folk, and will always share their simple food with anybody who is going short.
They need no clothes, because it is too hot to wear anything more than is necessary for decency ; and so
the countryman only needs a bit of land, and his livelihood is assured him by the sun and the rain and the kindly fruits of the earth."
From our second stopping-place in Java, Semarang (with the accent on the " ma "), we went off on one of
the most wonderful sightseeing expeditions I have ever 1,2d, for only forty miles from Semarang is one of the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
54 GUIDE LINKS
Wonders of the World. I forget the names of the several recognised Wonders of the World, but I have seen a good many that I count as incomparable with this old Buddhist Temple of Boroboedoer (pronounced Borabuddha).
It was probably built during the eighth or ninth century A.D., and it is impossible to imagine a more perfect masterpiece of Buddhist architecture. You come upon it quite suddenly at a turn in the road, and there it rises up, tier upon tier of beautifully decorated stone, high ornate balustrades with alcoves every few yards, and within them exquisite statues of Buddha, perfect still in shape and form. For many years this most wonderful temple was covered by ashes from the violent eruptions of volcanoes some miles away and the encroachment of wild and tangled undergrowth, and it was rediscovered by Sir Stamford Raffles, the Englishman who governed Java for a short period after the Napoleonic Wars. He had the forest cleared away to disclose the wonders of this temple and in 1886 the Archxological Society of Java undertook the actual restoring of it.
It is built round a hill, the solid earth forming the centre. The square base measures over Soo feet in each direction, the upper terraces gradually get smaller until at the top a fifty-foot dagoba is reached. In the darkness of this dagoba (or pinnacle) a statue of the Buddha, unfinished, sits enthroned. The top of the dagoba itself is broken off, as a symbol that nothing made by humans is perfect and complete.
There are seven of these huge ascending terraces, each faced with exquisitely carved bas-reliefs, telling the stories
of the various incarnations of Vishnu, the God of War.
In spite of the intense heat the Chief Scout and I just had to clamber up and explore through the marvellous
terraces, gallery after gallery of them, two miles of uninterrupted stone carving, the four lower terraces picturing the scenes from the earthly life, the three upper ones the
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JAVA 55
initual life of the Buddha. This, their Leader and ophet, is always depicted sitting cross-legged, looking to the future, thinking—thinking.
Above the bas-reliefs of the lower terraces are statues f the Enlightened One, each statue a superbly modelled .ork of art.
On the upper terraces are seventy-two bell-shaped agobas, with more statues enclosed by a stone lattice n account of the proximity to the Great Teacher, the nfinished figure that surmounts the temple, untouched ince it was placed there by reverent hands some I,2.00 ears ago.
It is all very wonderful, very impressive, and very ,eautiful. One thinks of the brains of those devoted nen of long ago, designing and planning this immense ,wilding, to the glory of their Great Leader, the hands ,nd bodies that toiled for years to make it perfect in liape and form, the pilgrims coming from far distances with their offerings to be laid at the feet of their Master. In the stillness of the midday hour and gazing at the nagnificent sun-scorched carvings of this temple one 'eels a new sympathy for the simple beliefs and customs )f these island people.
They worship the highest they know, they deny themselves and give offerings to their own Great Leader ; they practise their faith according to the teachings of their ancestors and their priests, they carry out the laws of kindness and of courtesy. They lead their simple lives as the Almighty made them, and they fulfil their task of working hard from one year's end to another. What more would we expect of anyone but that ?
* *
Have you ever heard of Sourabaya, I wonder ? I had seen it on the map, and I did just know that it was a seaport town, but that was about all I did know about it till we landed there. It is a huge town, and a wonderful mixture of ancient and modern. You drive along fine
------------------------------------------------------------------------
56 GUIDE LINKS
wide streets with big handsome buildings and charming comfortable, well-kept homes ; and then as you look down side streets, there are tiny little tumbledown sheds as houses, and you see glimpses of a rather dirty canal and people washing themselves, and their clothes, in dirty, brown, muddy water !
The side of the canal is practically lined with people standing almost up to their waists in water, thumping and bumping their dirty clothes on a board, or just on the stone steps leading down to the water's edge.
They don't bother much about the scrubbing and rinsing, and nobody here thinks about boiling the dirt out or of putting in blue to make the white clothes whiter still. No, the dirt, they contend, comes out later in the blazing sunshine, when the things are spread out to dry
There are beautiful drives round about Sourabaya, and even going up to the town from the big busy wharf there were exquisite trees making a lovely shade on the road. Mainly there were the famous Flamboyant tree, that has a very beautiful green foliage and masses of rich scarlet-orange blossom ; also the Boengoer (pronounced " Bungur "), which is about the size of a large lilac tree, with bunches of rich lilac-coloured flowers much the same size and sticking straight up like chestnut blossoms. Beside these were rows of Tjemara trees, looking very like our ordinary fir tree which we use for making Christmas trees.
Talking of Christmas, the Dutch people in Java celebrate December 5th as Santa Claus Day. Here, instead of hanging up your stocking at the end of your bed for Santa Claus to put presents in, you put your shoes outside the front door, so that he can just drop the parcel in quickly.
There is yet another thing that these thoughtful children arrange for, and that is that you put a nice wisp of straw into the shoes too, so that whilst he is stopping
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JAVA 57
to unpack and deliver the parcels his horses can stand on soft straw instead of the hot hard road I
So you see these Dutch children in Java have got the idea of being kind to their animals, and it is a very good thing indeed, for here in this island we saw hundreds of tiny ponies carrying and pulling big loads. They are used for pulling tiny little carts for people to drive in, as cabs were used in the old days before motors came in. The carts are only supposed to hold two people, but there were often four or five grown-up men squeezed in, and bulging over the edge.
Here in Sourabaya we had a delightful Rally of some 85o Scouts and Guides—our last in Java—and we have carried away with us many happy memories of this charming country.
I shall always see in my mind the dazzling glare of hot sunshine on land and water, the blaze of colour of the tropical flowers, and the luxuriant green of palm and paddy fields.
Mixed with this kaleidoscope, gained as we journeyed through the country part of Java, are the gladdening moments of contact with this plucky young branch of our Guide sisterhood. The Movement there is still young and fragile, with but little support and many difficulties to overcome. Old customs die hard, and Guiding is not yet fully understood, and it has to meet with criticism and even antagonism, and must prove gradually its merit for the children of this important island.
A big responsibility therefore rests on the shoulders of these pioneers in Guiding in Java. The people of Holland have been for centuries in close touch with the people of Great Britain. Geographically we are near to one another, and in sympathies I think our nations are very near indeed. So good luck to the Dutch and Javanese Guides in the Dutch East Indies, and let as hope that they will prosper and succeed in their uphill task.
----------------[ End of Chapter One ]------------------
