Swatow, June 9.
'The South China Battalion of the Boys' Brigade met in Swatow this week for the first battalion display that has ever been held in China. The Scout movement has for some time past had its place as a boys' organization in this country and nas developed along many and divergent lines, but it is not generally known that the establishment of the Boys' Brigade has already been effected and that the infancy of the movement is largely a thing of the past. Unique in its constitution, in that it is the only organization of its kind that is definitely and essentially Christian, the Boys' Brigade has a distinctive part to play in boys' work.
In these parts, the Brigade has behind it the history of six years of patient and extremely energetic work and, indeed, this week's display is the fifth which the Ist (Swatow) Company can lay to its credit. The movement had ts beginning in the autumn of 1916, when the Ist China (now South China) Company was formed in Swatow by the Rev. A. G. Gamble, of the E. P. Mission. To his energy and powers of organization, combined with a great gift for dealing with boys, the movement owes much of its present success. A visit from him and a squad of his boys resulted in the formation ofi the 2nd (Wukingfu) Company, and about the same time the 3rd (Shanghang) Company was enrolled. Other companies followed in the Swatow district, run by old boys from the first company who had received their training under Mr. Gamble and carried with them some of the keenness they had caught from him, There are now seven companies in all, of which six were present or represented at the display on Thursday.
The proceedings commenced on Tuesday evening, when the six companies paraded for a route march in the environs of Swatow, assembling at the Presbyterian Church for a very impressive dedication service. The battalion was welcomed by the Chinese pastor, the Rev, S. T. Huang, and the address was given by the Rev. H. F. Wallace, on the subject, "Sure and Steadfast." An impressive part of the service was the dedication of the flags of five of the companies by the Rev. T. W. D. James, of Chaochowfu.
After a delay of a day, owing to rain, the display was ultimately held on Thursday and a moderate judgement of the number of people actually admitted would be 15,000, The programme opened with the Battalion singing two verses "Onward, Christian Soldiers," to the accompaniment of the Ist Company's band, after which Mr.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.