Chapter 14 - A Calm and Beautiful Countr
It was on the afternoon of VE Day that I crossed the border from a wounded, battered France into calm, beautiful Switzerland, unhurt and brave, encircled for five years with anxiety ever in her heart, but mercifully spared, in her staunch determined stand for neutrality, to be a helper and a comforter to many a sufferer from different parts of stricken Europe.
As my passport had been prepared for travelling from Paris to Geneva by train, I found myself wondering rather anxiously what the officials would say as we drove by road from Mulhouse to Basle.
However, as we neared the barbed wire fencing and barricades that for the war years were erected at the frontier, I saw that a crowd was circulating about them, that flags were flying, and everyone seemed to be having a great time together.
The Swiss Guides from the town had come out to welcome me in, French Guides from neighbouringivillages had come along to share in the fun with them, and in the middle of all this gay jumble, I skipped across the frontier.
We found Basle en fete on this VE Day, with bands playing and people everywhere, and as I looked out of the window on to the grey rushing waters of the Rhine, straddled by the quaint, old world town, the sound of the happy life of its inhabitants came up to me, symbolising for me the freedom and stable well-being and homey-ness of Switzerland.
This little country is, to my mind, the most ideal in the world, with its contented, balanced people, its well organised life, and its satisfactory form of govemment based on a system that has been built up and proved itself through the centuries.
As long ago as 1291 the three small cantons of Urie, Schwizz and Unterwalden bound themselves in the original confederation, to protect themselves against the Austrian oppression to which they were being subjected.
This was in fact the 'Resistance Movement' of that day, the small group binding themselves to resist aggression, and asserting their right to freedom of thought and action; and ,one of the great heroes of that Movement was the famous William Tell.
I think it is a grand story, and probably most of you know it, but in case you don't I will just give you a résumé of it.
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It happened that one day, at the time when the revolt was spreading rapidly through the country, William Tell and his son, of about Wolf Cub age, came to the town of Altdorf.
Gessler, the governor of the town, was a tyrant and one of his recent actions had been to place his hat on a pole in a public place and order everyone to salute it.
Tell refused to do this, and was arrested by the soldiers stationed at hand to see that the order was enforced.
Gessler, coming along at that moment, enquired what was afoot, got very angry and then—having a bright idea of a cruel sort of punishment and knowing that Tell was famous in the district as an archer—he said that he would release him if he would stand his son up in front of him and shoot an apple on the boy's head.
As you all know the boy stood that test unflinchingly and the father hit the apple safely, and was about to be set free, when Gessler spotted that he had a second arrow in his quiver and demanded to know why.
'If I had killed my son with the first,' was the reply, the second would have entered your heart.' Whereupon he was rearrested, pinioned and taken of in a boat across the Lake of the Four Cantons by his captors.
A frightful storm arose, and the boat was nearly swamped. The men, getting frightened, untied Tell, who was such a great,
strrong, outdoor man — a real Scout in fact — hoping that he could save the boat.
He used this opportunity by running the boat close to a rock, leapt upon it, and, pushing the boat off again he made off and hid in the mountains.
Actually, possibly owing to its lighter weight, the boat rode out t the storm, and Gessler and his band landed at Kusnacht. Eventually, when going through a narrow canyon in search of Tell, he was shot by an arrow that came from some hidden spot. So Gessler died, though it was never known for certain that it was Tell's second arrow that killed him, and Tell became a national hero.
After that, the idea of coming together grew more and more strongly and during the following 650 years one by one the cantons joined the Confederation, each keeping its own independence in ways ; different parts of the country kept their own language and some laws, but a central administration was set up with the capital at Berne, and in 1815 Geneva, the last canton, joined up, and made Switzerland into a united whole.
After three happy days at Basle I began my tour of this delectable
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country, going first to Berne where the Guides gave me the most lovely welcome on arrival, and also later at a very informal rally by the river.
Here, in this country of mountains, where people are used to scaling rocky peaks and to crossing treacherous tracts of snow that may be disguising crevasses and deep chasms, a knot in a rope may often mean the difference between life and death.
I was prepared therefore to find that Swiss Guides are good at knotting. But even with this knowledge I was startled by one of the displays when, walking up through some woods, I found one lot of Guides swinging themselves, seated in a loop of the rope, out from the top of a tall cliff into a tree, and there swarming down a rope ladder which they had made there and then on the spot.
Such a gay healthy lot they were, and I think they got a lot of fun and satisfaction over the knots which they had tied successfully enough to stand this life and death test.
I have seen many beautiful and impressive sights in my time, but as I walked out that first morning on to the wide terrace surrounding the Parliament Buildings, which stand imposingly on a hill, even I gasped as I saw the whole outline of the Bernese Oberland stretching before me, a glorious panorama of phantom, shining white peaks as far as the eye could see—The Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, The Jungfrau, Eiger, Finsteraarhorn, Blumisalp and Wildhom, and all the rest of these famous mountain heights.
All this mountainous region in Central Switzerland is extremely lovely, and during the war years it has taken on a new name and a new character.
The country was completely encircled by the warring nations, and having seen first one country and then another overrun and occupied, the people lived in constant fear of invasion.
A few days before war was declared on Germany by Great Britain, because of the German invasion of Poland, the Swiss volunteer army was mobilised; and one million men, out of the four million inhabitants of Switzerland, were out along the frontier, and served continuously throughout the following years in order to keep their little country safe.
At one terrible anxious moment France asked Switzerland how long she could hold out if she were invaded, and the answer given was ' FOUR DAYS ONLY, but we will fight to the last man.'
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Facing Page 50 are these illustrations:
6. The Chief with the two Princesses at the Rally in Luxemburg
7. The Rally in Le Grand Place at Brussels: Les Gillesde Binches, a national dance
The mountain fastnesses became the Reduit Nationale,' and all the villages in this safety area were stocked with food and guns and ammunition, in anticipation of what might come.
It has been learned that such invasion had definitely been planned for a certain day, and that only two hours before the German army was ordered to march into Switzerland the plan was called off, because they realised that such a country would never be conquered and held, and their soldiers would be continuously harried from the mountain fortresses.
Yes, the Swiss are a fine freedom-loving people, strong individualists and truly democratic in outlook. And the children are brought up in the same tradition of thinking out what they want for themselves, and not waiting for other people to think for them.
So much so that all the Guide Companies that exist have been started by girls themselves, and not in any way planned or organised by anyone coming from any other town or district. Guiding has just started from the desire coming from within the hearts and minds of those young people to do Guiding, and this has brought about a vigorous enthusiasm of its own, which pervades the whole of our Movement in Switzerland.
It was good to see the thorough carrying out of the Patrol system in those Companies, and many I came across have taken original and unusual names, going in as they do for symbolism and romance far more than you in Great Britain.
If you were a Swiss Guide, instead of being an inactive snowdrop you would bear the name of a martyred saint, who gave his or her life for a cause or a fellow creature; instead of being a shy and retiring woodpecker, you might take the name of a valiant fiery knight, whose deeds are famous and whose qualities are of the highest we should aim for.
All that appeals to me, personally, though it doesn't of course to everybody.
It was a very real joy to be able to include in my tour of Switzerland just a tiny short visit to Our Chalet.' Of course, you all know about ' Our Chalet '—the beautiful Guide house at Adel boden given to the World Movement by Mrs. Storrow and opened in 1932. Since then, five thousand Guides from all the corners of the earth have visited it, and, although throughout the war years visitors from other countries could not be received there, it has remained open for the use of Swiss Guides. The' Guider-in-Charge, the well-loved Falk, was able to write to people
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in France, Germany, Belgium, and other countries, to send little parcels of food as well as news of one friend to another, and so followed in the Swiss tradition of helping in many ways those who were cut off from free intercourse with the world.
How grand it was to be there again, to look out over the Swiss countryside—the wee chalets melting into the landscape as if they had sprung from the earth rather than been fashioned by man's hands, and at the great mountains ringing the Chalet—the table-topped Wildstrubel, and Lohner flanked by the towering peaks of Mitteghorn and Nunihorn, and straight across, high above Adelboden, Schwanfeldspitze, with Elsighorn and Bonderspitz forming the gateway into the valley. The only new thing I saw was the square patches of brown, freshly turned earth on the hillsides where only lush green grass had been, thousands of extra acres being cultivated and used to grow potatoes and other foodstuffs for themselves and their central European neighbours.
Our Chalet ' possesses a Livre D'Or,' where a record of activities and visitors is kept, and I was asked to write something in it, so tried to voice what I thought you would wish me to say :
From travels in war-scarred countries and bleak dark years of a world's sadness and strain, I have come once again to Our Chalet to rejoice anew in its sweet hospitality and the quiet beauty of its mountain setting.
As we think of what this Guide House means to the thousands of Guides it has sheltered under its roof, of those who will return and those who won't—our, hearts, go out in loving understanding to those others who can no longer carry the torch of Guiding in their hands, and of some where the light is flickering low.
' Of others we think with deepest pride, who—their torch flaming aloft—have stood fast through peril of mind and body, striving for their nation's good, working for peoples set free, praying through the years of war that God's peace and goodwill may come in the world that He made.'
One of the great joys of travelling is the unexpected contacts that are made. I had the good fortune to run across an old friend—a thinking man, a Toc H padre, and a staunch believer in what Scouting and Guiding can do for you and—conversely—what you can do for it!
Later in a letter he wrote to me he said :
We must see to it that the men and women coming back from the war services give themselves as whole-heartedly to the great task of the leadership of the boys and girls, as they have given --
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without counting the cost — to the winning of the war. . . . We must see to it that this generation of boys and girls is just the best that the old country — and indeed all the tortured countries of Europe — have ever nurtured. . . . The Founder saw that years ago, and his recipe for peace and goodwill still stands; and I believe with all my heart and soul that Scouting, plus the dynamic power of a real religion, is the quite infallible plan by which the world will be redeemed. . . . I look upon the Founder as a man sent from God to lead the boyhood of the world to Himself, . . . '
As I have already told you, though unassailed by war itself, Switzerland felt great repercussions of the war that raged all round, and there were urgent calls for all manner of public services to be maintained. The Red Cross claimed hundreds to undertake the distribution of millions of parcels, and the hospitals were gradually filled with wounded and sick men, and Guiders were enrolled in a service called ' Etablissement Sanitaire Militaire ' or E.S.M. for short.
this entailed welfare work of many varied kinds at military hospitals, over and above actual nursing work itself, performed under military orders and discipline, but in Guide uniform as Guides, for two or three months at a time, a roster being kept at I Icadquarters so that there were no gaps between duties.
I visited six Guiders who were doing this work at Lenk, and !hey entertained me in their hutment, the table being a very home-
lade Camp Table, decorated with a large dish of blue gentians picked fresh on the mountain slopes that morning and the Guide I id (Ige traced out in buttercups.
Over and above that service, immense help has been given and
many kindnesses have been shown to relays of refugees and children from other countries who are sent for a refreshing holiday in order to pick up health and strength again.
The Guides of Lucerne gave me the sweetest welcome, and during my short twenty-four hours' stay, I visited a quaint little locale belonging to one Company, which was a disused cottage on which these Guides had achieved decorative wonders.
Dashing across the lake to an island, we held a happy Rally together, the day ending with a Scouters and Guiders party lasting far into the night.
Speeding on my way in the train from Lucerne to Zurich, I was a little confused when my escorting Guide friends spoke ofarriving by boat.
Light fell upon this on arrival at the small station of Kilchberg,
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where I was suddenly snatched out of the train to find a triumphal arch, carried by Guides, under which I was led away down the
road to the pier on the lake. And not only did I have the floral covering over my head, but my luggage did too, being carried along in a jolly little wooden cart, all decorated with garlands of flowers!
A motor launch, ' dressed ' with flags, whirled us across the lake towards Zurich, which is the biggest and busiest town in Switzerland, with great industries and very fine buildings, both old and new.
As we approached the quay, I could see a mass of blue at the water's edge, and then found hundreds of Guides all forming a long Guard of Honour, stretching a good half mile—some on the pier itself, some on the steps, some in the roadway. Only those who could swim had been allowed to climb up and stand waving their flags on the balustrade overlooking the shining blue water of the lake itself.
A very fine Rally was arranged in a private park surrounding the old house where Richard Wagner composed parts of his famous operas.
It was a very colourful scene as the 900 Guides came marching up a long avenue in their bright lightish-blue jumpers and multicoloured ties, carrying their vivid scarlet Swiss flags.
Though the whole Rally had only been got up at about a week's notice, there were some very good shows, and a most amusing pageant giving the history of the Guide Movement in Switzerland from its inception twenty-six years ago.
This was done in several separate scenes, the first, of course, showing Boy Scouts camping, and girls in long, draping dresses and the strangest of hats and coats watching hungrily and then going off to imitate their Scouting doings.
They then proceeded to think out what name they could take, never having heard of ' Guide,' and also each different lot rather wishing to be distinctive and slightly different from the next. Those from Basle thought to call their group the Fortress; St. Gall chose the idea of being the ' Union of the Helpful,' and so on; but, the upshot of all the argument was that they saw it was better to unite and have one name for the whole of Switzerland, forming a ' Union ' with its own Bye-Laws and promising obedience to seven Laws.
The next scene enacted was fearfully funny, dealing with the uniform question, and the actors held a sort of mannequin parade,
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some expressing the wish for khaki, others favouring brown, some wanted to wear Scout hats, others wanted berets, some wanted short skirts, others preferred long; ultimately, after heated, protracted argument, a final decision was reached in favour of the dark blue skirt and lighter ,blue jumper which we all know by sight so well.
Then another scene reminded me that I had myself had a little hand in the making of Swiss Guide history, and showed my coming to Geneva in 1922, and there discussing with the then Chiefs of the Movement, many of whom are still most actively in Guiding, the adoption of ten Laws, the threefold Promise and the changing of their original badge of three flames for the recognised Trefoil Badge to bring them into line with the Guides of other countries.
The starting of the Brownies made up another scene, these little people in Switzerland being called Petites Ailes ' in the Romande Switzerland, and Bienle ' in the German speaking part, as their badge is a bee and a beehive their symbol.
The building and the opening of Our Chalet, and the starting of Rangers formed part of this excellent display, and there was also an interesting show of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of this Federation des Eclaireuses Suises.'
To mark that occasion a message from their National Commissioner was sent from Beme by eight different routes through the length and breadth of Switzerland, carried on foot, on bicycles, by car and by rail, by boat and, I expect, probably even on skis, and in each case the messages reached their destinations within twenty-four hours.
This message was printed on a blue card, with a replica of our I °tinder's drawing showing a Scout kicking the letters ' IM ' out of the word Impossible,' and it read :
Eclaireuses de 1944, comme celles de 1919, foncez sur les obstacles et vous viendrez a bout. Du travail d'aujourd'hui Stipend le monde de demain, avec l'aide de Dieu.'
last scene was to me a most amusing one, built up round the vague rumours of my coming that had been current in. Zurich that month, first I was coming and then I was not coming, nobody knew what to do or how to do it, and then finally my joyous
arrival was depicted and my welcome in their midst.
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