Baden-Powell and Esperanto

A hundred years ago Baden-Powell wrote a booklet called ”Scouting for Boys“.

It appeared as six brochures with the price of 4 pennies each.

The very first one appeared in January 15^th 1908.

Each of the booklets were divided into chapters, which received the name of ”Camp Fire Yarn“.

In the third booklet, Baden-Powell advised the scouts that they should use the International Language Esperanto as a ”secret patrol language“.

It is only one sentence. And it does not appear anymore in the following edition.

The fact, that Baden-Powell mentions the international language is interesting. Although his writing shows, that he hardly understand the worth of Esperanto for the world-wide scouting movement.

”If you want to write a despatch that will puzzle most people to read, use the Morse or semaphore letters in place of the ordinary alphabet. It will be quite readable to any of your friends who understand signalling.

Also if you want to use a secret language in your patrol you should all set to work to learn ”esperanto“. It is not difficult, and is taught in a little book costing one penny. This language is being used in all countries so that you would be able to get on it abroad now.“
(Scouting for Boys, page 202 of the original version)

In August 22^th 1969, the Skolta Esperanto-Ligo officially presented the first learning book ”Ĵamborea Lingvo“ (the Jamboree's Language) to the members of the Scout Conference held in Helsinki, Finland. A brand new version appeared in 1995.

”La Skolta Mondo“ is the official bulletin.