Re: IOFSAG, Scouts in Exile

I read a really informative "book" about Scouts in Exile titled
"The Forgotten Movements"

This book was written by Piet Kroonenberg of the Netherlands
and his address is :

Piet Kroonenberg
Waalenburgsingel 283
NL 1024 EW AMSTERDAM-NIEUWENDAM
THE NETHERLANDS

What I have been able to learn about the movements of Exiled Scouts that
came into existence in the early 1920s with the end of the Russian Civil War
(1921), these national movements lasted officially as part of the WOSM (formerly
Boy Scout International Bureau) until December 1945 due to the vast number of
Displaced Persons following WWII. The National Movements in France and England
and other countries that found themselves hosting literally millions of
displaced persons weren't overly fond of the possibility of many new Exiled
Scout movements from Eastern Europe.
As a quote from the book states:
the World organization "agreed that no more "National Movements on Foreign Soil
could be permitted and they also agreed that the two precedents had to be
removed and expelled from the World Movement. And so it happened that was
wassed:
Resolution 12/45 reading:
"The continuation of the Russian Association was also questioned. The Committee
was of the opinion that conditionss now, as against those obtaining when the
Association was granted recognition, were such that the continuance of
recognition was no longer justified. The Committee particularly wished to avoid
any circumstances that might compromise the possible organization withing the
U.S.S.R. of a Scout Movement that might eventually become a member of the World
Scout Brotherhood."

What this meant was that these displaced persons who desired to become Scouts
had to organize through the National Movements of the nations they were located
in. From what I can gather, England and France didn't prevent the rise of
Easten European National movements on Foreign Soil from forming.
What the US did was that around that time, tried to get the National
Organization of Russian Scouts, headquartered in the US, to merge itself in to
the BSA as directed by the World Movement. The Russian Scouts refused and
subsequentally the BSA threatened legal (as near as I can tell) action if the
National Organization of Russian Scouts didn't stop using the world "Scout" so
the Russian Scouts in the US changed their name to "National Organization of
Russian Pathfinders (Rus- Razvyadckikov), and so it has remained until this day,
still operating and causing considerable headaches for the newly formed
"Federation of Russian Scouts" in Russia.

Anyway, sorry for the History lesson, but it was too tempting.
If anyone is curious, I have a little more info that I can send if you ask
specific questions.
YiS,
Andy McElhannon
ASM T-497
BU

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