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This is the third time since I came to Canada that I
have had the honour to attend your annual dinner. I need not tell
you that I find it one of the pleasantest occasions in the year. It
gives me an opportunity of meeting many friends, and it gives me a
chance of getting a bird's-eye view of our progress. Although I am
always on the road and meeting Scouts everywhere, it is only on
this occasion that I can get our work into proper perspective.

Of our progress there can be no doubt. Take the question
of Scout Leaders. Since I came to Canada there has been an increase
of 868, or nearly fourteen per cent. But we want a bigger increase.
I want to double that figure and make it 1730 before I leave, for
without the Leaders one cannot get the boys. This last year in the
Maritime Provinces, and in Ontario, and among the Salvation Army
Scouts, there have been substantial additions to our numbers; but
there have been losses in the Western Provinces, and the result is
that our total membership at the end of 1937 is just about the same
as it was at the end of 1936. Well, we must do better than that.

We must achieve before I leave Canada the First Hundred Thousand - to
use a familiar phrase of the Great War. That means that we have to
add 14,000 recruits within the next two years. I appeal to Canada
to give us these 14,000 more boys and 17,000 more Leaders, and I am
quite certain that my appeal will be met, for you don't want your
Chief Scout to leave Canada a disappointed man.