Chapter 16 - A Passport that Never Fails
From The Tessin my tour took me practically from one end of Switzerland to the other in one day, seeing groups of Guides at the stations en route, at Olten, Solothurn, Beil and Neuchatel, and finding a vigorous welcome at Lausanne.
Guiding is in fine fettle there, and with only a few days' notice, a Rally had been planned, taking place out in some jolly woods on the edge of the town.
We started off with the inspection and colour ceremonial and the singing of the National Anthems, and then all the Companies scattered into different parts of the wood, and I walked from one to the other to see them doing various sorts of displays. Some were playing games, some stalking, some wooding,' some setting up a camp. A camp lunch was cooked for me on a most original little fire which I had never seen before. They said that it was made from a Polynesian design, the fire being cupped in a sort of bowl of sand, lined with fattish sticks of wood standing upright with a fringe-like palisade effect and making a very good concentrated heat.
There was also a most amusing Obstacle Race, done at express speed downhill among the thick trees, and among the obstacles ' to be overcome were walking the plank ' on a very wobbly tree trunk, ducking with a book balanced on your head and a rope held about four feet above the ground, squirming through the back of a garden bench, and throwing your hat on to three tall posts in turn.
Here also I came across a thing that was quite new to me. Companies here have invented, and on occasions use, a very charming knighting ceremony. The Eclaireuses of the Clan de St. Francois performed this in initiating a Patrol Leader. The ceremony begins by Patrols marching into horseshoe formation with their Guiders standing in the centre facing them. It is also occasionally used even for Captains and Lieutenants who like to pledge themselves very specially to the service of Guiding. The ritual goes rather like this — though it is varied according to the views of the Company and the rank of the Guide to be so
knighted!
The Captain starts off by calling out : 'Eclaireuses soyons . . .
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and the Guides quickly yell :' Prétes.' Then the Law is recited, usually by a Patrol Leader, and a patriotic or Guide song is sung. The Patrol Leader to be 'knighted ' advances, kneels and the Captain touches her on the shoulder with the Patrol flag of the Patrol to which she belongs, saying :
Captain: 'Do you promise to do all you possibly can to be a good leader of your Patrol?'
Guide: 'Yes.'
Captain: 'To set a good example?'
Guide: 'Yes.'
Captain: 'To obey the Law and to respect it and carry it into your daily life?'
Guide: 'Yes.'
After reminding the Guide that her Patrol will now look to her as their chosen leader, the Captain hands her the P.L's. stripes and the Patrol flag, they salute, and the Leader takes her place at the head of her Patrol.
The ceremony ends with the singing of another song, and the repetition of their company cry, which in this case was 'Aie bon courage et gai visage,' and their motto 'Non flectam.'
It is all done perfectly simply with dignity and a feeling of quiet purpose behind it, so that the Guide taking this new step forward in her life may gain inspiration for her task.
What a joy letters often are, and how I wish I could share with all of you those I received during and after this visit, letters that humbled me and yet made me also so very proud. 'I hope you could feel at that meeting,' wrote a Guider from Berne, 'Something of our affection for you as the symbol of international Guide friendship, and of the immense encouragement it has been to us to get good news from our sisters abroad. We all feel after your visit like the small Bernese Guide who said to me after the Rally : "If one could give twice one's Promise, I had it done to-day! " ' Another came from a well-known and well-loved Swiss Guider, in which she said, amongst other things : I want to assure you that more than ever I am devoted to Guiding and that all my energy and strength shall go more than ever towards the spreading of our ideal. . . . You will have seen many Guides and Rallies, but besides these outward manifestations, there is a lot of unseen work and faith that will never come to the surface, but this may probably be the thing of greatest value we get in our lives. . . . Now starts a new era, and sets the new programme for us
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though that is not quite true, for there is no new programme to make, but the one intensified.' These letters show that in Switzerland, as in those countries where the light of Guiding was kept burning in spite of the most rigid oppression, there is still a radiating belief and enthusiasm in and for all that Guiding is and all that it is going to be.
There was certainly enough enthusiasm apparent when we arrived at Geneva from Lausanne ! We received a terrific welcome, and after inspecting a Guide and Scout Guard of Honour, I was driven in an open car, along a Scout and Guide lined route all the way to the hotel, twelve Scout cyclists acting as an escort.
Geneva has always been a recognised centre for world affairs, and here have been established the Headquarters of the International Red Cross, the world's Y.M.C.A., and the International Council of Women, the International Labour Office, and other Associations and Councils.
But above all, of course, Geneva is world famous as being the place chosen for the building of the immense palace for the League of Nations set up after the Great War.
On a Sunday morning I walked through the flower filled gardens by the lake, sparkling blue in the sun and covered with small boats, their white sails fluttering like little pocket handkerchiefs, and up through the Botanical Gardens to the handsome great building, built for the keeping of a Peace that didn't last.
Ironically enough the gates were locked, and its windows all barred and shuttered as if it had closed its eyes in sorrow, not daring to look on the distorted world.
It was as long ago as 1771 that a certain French Marquis came to Geneva and found the place to his liking and built himself a house there and dreamed dreams of the future, and he even prophesied that some day a temple of peace would be built there, and 150 years later his words came true.
As I came away I looked out over the lake and saw that the midday sun had swept the morning clouds away from the far off mountain ranges. There stood the radiant peak of Mont Blanc silhouetted sharp and clear—a symbol perhaps to show that whatever disappointments may come, Gbd's wonderful creations and beauties are there to gaze upon, and that temporary failure will not prevent man from looking up and travelling on.
Both Guiding and Scouting have always been good in Geneva, and big national camps have been held there at intervals for the last thirty years.
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My programme was very well filled, my day's work starting sometimes at 6 a.m. and ending at 1 the next morning, because though one can do Rallies and meetings and interviews and things like that by day and all day, there are always letters to be written and those by necessity then have to be done at night, when each day is filled to the brim.
A Second Class hike took place one day, with 450 Guides taking part. They set off in couples or in Patrols, according to desire, and find their way by map directions to eleven different
postes ' where one item of the second class test is judged, the Guides themselves being the testers but with a Guider standing by to sign the test cards as they finish.
The tests were the same as yours and were quite ordinary things ike " boil water,' knots," first aid,' make a flag,' recognise twenty flowers and twenty trees,' and so on.
But these Guides were doing these things out in the open under simple conditions, in the course of a seven-mile hike, which is much more the real thing somehow than just going through a test in a hall.
We left Geneva as light was breaking, and luckily had just one last glimpse of Mont Blanc, far away, standing up like a phantom in the haze, and as the train rushed through the last small station before reaching the frontier we just glimpsed two Guides standing out on the platform, holding a huge Swiss flag out between them and throwing bunches of roses to us as we rushed by. My first post-war visit to Switzerland ended as graciously as it had begun.
But no, not quite ended—for the frontier had still to be crossed at Bellegarde, and here there was fuss and bother over the inspection of luggage and passports.
An alarming looking woman was standing, arms akimbo, waiting to search suspects, and under the eye of police and inspectors I had to fill up forms declaring why I came to the country, where I had been in it, what I had done in it, what I had bought in it, why I was leaving, it, and where I was going!
Then, as I handed in my written notes, suddenly the icy stare of officialdom broke down as a member of the staff saw my name. A gleam of surprise came over his face and out came a left hand to be gripped, the other hand raised with the Scout sign.
Another man near saw that there was something up, and he too came hurrying along for a word, whilst a third dashed off into the I own and hurriedly collected two young Guide Cheftaines, who
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came tearing up the platform just in time for a tiny talk and a handshake as my train pulled out.
And so I enter France again — with my own form of passport!
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