Before my visit to Belgium the Scouts there did grand work in helping
the soldiers who had been sent to put out some forest fires. For
several days the Scouts were camped with the soldiers.
They supplied a line of signalling posts, by which communication was
kept up with the nearest telegraph offices.
They rendered first aid to a good number of soldiers who got slight
injuries from burning or other accidents in fighting the flames. And
also the Scouts did good work in keeping the soldiers supplied with
water when it was most difficult to get.
When the campaign with the bush fires was over, the military
commanding officer published his very sincere thanks and praise for
the good work done by the Scouts.
The Belgian Scouts made a very good kind of hut for themselves. In the
sketch below you see the framework of one hut, as well as the hut
completed by being covered with turf sods, and a wickerwork door.
[Illustration: BELGIAN BOY SCOUTS' HUT. On the right is shown the
framework.]
During the war, the Belgian Scouts have amply sustained the reputation
won for the Belgians by the men in the fighting line. Indeed, many of
the Scouts themselves, though boys, joined in the fighting. One boy,
Leysen, alone, was decorated by King Albert for having captured no
fewer than eleven spies, and for having accounted for one of the enemy
with his own hand.
Two Belgian Scouts were captured by the Germans while observing their
lines and executed; while a large number have been employed in the
hospitals as orderlies, in addition to doing good work conveying
rations to troops in outlying trenches.
On the occasion of one of my visits to the Front, I saw a smart troop
of Belgian Scouts. It was a cyclist troop and the boys had offered
their services at the outbreak of war for orderly duty to the military
authorities at Antwerp. They continued their work in the retreat from
that place to Dunkirk and to North France, afterwards being employed
on regular pay by their Army Headquarters as orderlies.
I had the pleasure, too, of meeting the Chief Scout of Belgium, Dr. de
Page, the director of a splendid hospital for Belgian soldiers given
by the people of Great Britain. His three sons are Scouts, two of them
serving in the Army, and the youngest doing his bit in the workshop
attached to the hospital--where they make their own instruments, such
as scalpels, scissors, etc.
Finally, I had an interview with King Albert of Belgium. He told me
that "he considered the Movement one of the best steps of modern times
for the education of the boy. His own son is an enthusiastic Scout,
and the Belgian boys who had taken it up were quite changed for the
better, and had done valuable service in the war. The war had been a
high test for it, but had proved that our training gave the very best
foundation for making good soldiers--by developing the right spirit
and intelligence as well as physical strength and activity."
At the opening of the "Mercers' Arms" (the Hut for the use of our
troops which is manned by Scoutmasters) a Guard of Honour was formed
by a Calais Troop of French Boy Scouts under Scoutmaster Laut. These
boys have been doing helpful service in the military hospitals. It was
very pleasing indeed to see our international comradeship thus
exemplified.
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