ALS, one page, lightly-lined both sides, 4.75 x 8, February 20, 1927. Letter to Lt. Colonel Smedley Williams, marked at the top, “Personal.” In full: “(Excuse my note paper!) On my way out here today I called in at Dale College, K W Town, and had a talk with the Principal, Mr. Sutton. He is favourable to having Scouts there if it were not that Cadets are compulsory. He would welcome the raising of the age for Cadets to admit of scouting among the junior boys. I have already written to Col. Croswell on this point and hope to see him next month about it. So ‘Be Prepared’ to help them in starting Scouts ere long! Also I saw the boys of the Industrial School loafing about the roads badly wanting something to do. Just the class who most need Scouting—largely Dutch boys—a great opening for our work, if you can find a Scoutmaster for them. The two sons of my host, Mr. John Page of Kings W T, would make valuable Scouters or Commissrs. I expect. They are both young, married men, good sportsmen, educated at Dale, one was in the Indian Cavalry, the other in the Flying Corps in the war. Both command companies in the Kaffraria Rifles. Keep your eye on them! I find they admit boys to the Preparatory side of Dale College at 8 so they might very well start Wolf Cubs there as a thin end of the wedge. What about it? If you once got scouting going, and ultimately Rovering, in Dale Coll. it would mean a valuable help in Scouters for the movement in a few years time.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, a few creases, rusty staple hole to top left and toning to front page. In the fall of 1926, Baden-Powell travelled to South Africa hoping to iron out the racial tensions in the fledgling scouting movement there. Originally, it was proposed that Indians be allowed to become Scouts, but in segregated troops. This was unacceptable to Scouts in the Transvaal, where a separate movement for non-whites, called ‘Pathfinders,’ had been instituted. Facing heavy lobbying on both sides of the subject, efforts at compromise proved futile as, in 1931, the South African government created a youth movement for boys of Dutch descent—the Voortrekkers. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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