A thought for Founder's Day 1995

Loyalty to one's country is not a narrow, chauvinistic concept, but one
that is considered in a certain perspective; namely, that it must be in
harmony with the promotion of peace, understanding and cooperation at all
levels: local, national and international.

This approach reflects faithfully the Founder's philosophy when he wrote tha=
t,

"=8Awe should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls,
that it is patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at
one's own country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with
others.

Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognizes justice
and reasonableness in the claims of others and which leads our country into
comradeship with=8A the other nations of the world.

The first step to this end is to develop peace and goodwill within our
borders, by training our youth of both sexes to its practice as their habit
of life;

so that the jealousies of town against town, class against class and sect
against sect no longer exist;

and then to extend this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our
neighbours=8A"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The above is extracted from "Fundamental Principles", published by and
available in English and French from the World Scout Bureau, P.O. Box 241,
CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.

email: worldbureau@scout.gn.apc.org

(A German language version of Fundamental Principles will shortly be made
available from the European Scout Region. Other languages, such as
Croatian, for example) are known to have been created by some national
Scout organizations.)

The statement from B-P first appeared in "Scouting and Youth Movements",
published in 1929.

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