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3.

Let the older men here cast their minds back thirty years, before
the Scout movement had properly started. Suppose that then you had been
told that in thirty years the Scout movement would have spread over
the whole earth and have a membership of hundreds of thousands of every
race and nation. Suppose you had been told that in its ranks there
would be no distinctions of class or religion, that its creed would
be based upon profound moral truths, that its fundamental principles
would be peace among men and the service of our fellows.

Suppose you had been told that great international gatherings would
be held periodically, where Scouts from all over the world would meet
and fraternise. What would you have said? I think you would have
said that, if such a miracle came about, then our civilisation would
be secure and there would be no more strife among men.

Yet the miracle has happened. But other things have hap-
pened also. In these thirty years we have seen the greatest and
cruellest war known to history. To-day we find the Scout movement
flourishing , but we also find the nations at loggerheads and peace
very far off, and the world not far from the edge of the abyss. What
have we to say about it? That the Scout movement, for all its high
purpose has failed, that its goodwill is a mere drop in the bucket
of the world's ill-will? No, gentlemen, I think not. I think that
is a false deduction. I think that those who thirty years ago made
a hopeful forecast were nearer the truth. I believe profoundly
that no great and honest effort of mankind can fail in the long run.
The leaven may be slow to work, but it does work, and steadily leavens
the whole. I believe that the clouds which darken our sky to-day will