CHARTERED ASSOCIATIONS (PROTECTION OF NAMES AND UNIFORMS) BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 3 July 1924)

§ VISCOUNT BURNHAM
My Lords, I ask your Lordships to give a Second Reading to a Bill, exactly in the same form as it passed your Lordships' House two years ago, for the protection of chartered associations in their names and uniforms. As it is a fresh Parliament and a new Government, I must make a short statement at this stage of the Bill. I am free to admit that its short Title ought to be the Boy Scouts Bill, and I venture to appeal for your Lordships' assent on that ground. There are now some 400,000 members of the Boy Scouts' Association of the British Empire. They are increasing in numbers every day, and it is the very popularity of the movement that has incited a good many people to imitate it for other purposes than those of good citizenship.
If we ask for a certain protection in order to be able to extend its work, it is not because we desire any peculiar privilege. The objection has been advanced that if such protection be afforded to this movement it would have to be afforded to others, and, so far as the Boy Scouts are concerned, they have no objection to this being done to any body which has received a charter of incorporation after the investigations into its methods which are necessary. As a matter of fact, there are very few organisations which are not already safeguarded in the same way. The Church Lads' Brigade, for example, is already assured in its position, because it is an authorised cadet corps under the War Office. But the Boy Scouts are a non-military and non-sectarian organisation, and we have, therefore, been debarred from obtaining the Government protection which we should otherwise have had were we in the same position.
The rules, of course, are well known in their general character, and the aims and methods of the movement were the subject of inquiry by the Privy Council before we were granted a Royal Charter of incorporation. It is common knowledge that the aims and methods were found to be a satisfactory supplement to our national education on practical lines, 211 and that the result was to obtain a higher order of citizenship. In the Oversea Dominions and in the United States of America the movement is protected by Ordinances and Acts of Parliament. I do not wish to trouble your Lordships with a list of those countries in which this measure of protection has been granted, but it includes nearly all the Colonies as well as the Dominions of Canada and New Zealand, and in Australia and the Union of South Africa measures of the same kind are now pending. In the United States and the Argentine Republic and a number of other countries there is exactly that measure of protection afforded which is necessary for protecting the movement against imposture, and the country generally against fraud being perpetrated under its good name.
The Royal Charter was granted on the understanding that the Council should see to it that the principles of the Boy Scout movement, as submitted in the application made, were adhered to. Unfortunately, they find themselves unable to do this in the absence of the protection which this Bill would give. The protection now asked is to complete the grant of the Charter, which otherwise is of very little value. It should be looked at from the point of view of the State and the family as well as of its own merits as a civic movement. It is actually the case that the Bolsheviks in Russia have avowed their intention of wiping out the movement so far as they can. Organisations in imitation of the movement have already been formed—and this is a most dangerous feature—and fraudulent use is made of the name, the uniform and the badges of the Scout movement by men and boys dressed as scouts soliciting funds under the pretence of being members of the authorised association. Naturally, the general public does not know that scouts are not allowed to solicit money under any pretence whatever, and the movement loses credit on that account. Parents have cause to complain that an insufficient amount of control is exercised in the selection of scoutmasters for their moral and other qualities when they find that those who have been expelled from the movement for immorality are able to continue their evil practices by posing as scoutmasters and raising independent troops of boys.
212 We want to protect the public from imitation bodies of scouts obtaining funds and patronage through the use of the name, the uniform, and the badges of the scouts. Even the well-known initials "B.P." were skilfully introduced in one case to stand for British Peace Scouts. A large number of complaints on the part of the public could be produced to your Lordships, if I were to take up your time, in order to show in what way they have been duped. We have, of course, certain ideals and methods which were approved by the Privy Council when the Charter was granted and these are liable to be neutralised if people take the name and the uniform and work on entirely different lines. I think, therefore, your Lordships will admit that a good case has been made out for giving the amount of protection which this Bill affords. Speaking for the Association, we have no desire to prejudice any other body. On the contrary, we are willing that the same privileges shall be given, if one may use the term, and the same measure of protection extended to them if they are genuinely pursuing an aim which is conducive to the public good. That, we claim, has been fully established in the case of the Boy Scouts. I move, therefore, that the Bill be now read a second time, and I hope that I am justified in believing that there will be no opposition to it in your Lordships' House.

§ LORD PARMOOR
My Lords, I should like to say at once that we know the great interest the noble Viscount has taken in the subject matter of this Bill and the somewhat similar Bill which he introduced into your Lordships' House on a former occasion. I can only say, on behalf of the Government, that we have no objection to a Second Reading being given to the Bill, and that we do not raise any opposition to it.

THE EARL OF ONSLOW
My Lords, the noble Viscount, in introducing the Bill, dwelt very largely on the advantages which it would confer upon the Boy Scout movement. He concluded his speech by saying that other organisations of a similar character would be able to participate in these advantages. My noble friend Lord Scarbrough is not able to be present to-day, and I should like to say 213 that this Bill has the support of the Order of St. John, to whom the protection which it would give to the badges and uniform of the order would be very valuable.

§ LORD ASKWITH
My Lords, I understand that this Bill is in exactly the same form as that which the noble Viscount introduced two years ago.

§ VISCOUNT BURNHAM
Exactly the same.

§ LORD ASKWITH
When the Bill was originally introduced I took an objection to it on behalf of the Salvation Army, but I came to an arrangement with the noble Viscount on the subject. The Salvation Army, though with some doubt, do not offer any objection to the present Bill.