# Boy Scouts and What They Do/What the Chief Scout thought

What the Chief Scout thought of it all.
The whole thing was a remarkable success, and marks a big step in the progress of our Movement.
The Exhibition was a wonderful show, and was a surprise to everyone, whether in the Movement or outside it. It proved what boys can do, if you only give them the ambition to work for themselves.
It showed the boys what standards of excellence can be obtained, and what they have to work up to before they can consider themselves in the first fight.
To the public it was an education in showing the results of the Scout training upon the boys; and these were as evident outside the Exhibition as within it. The behaviour and appearance of the boys in the streets, and in their camps and lodgings, drew praise and sympathy from all quarters, from the Lord Mayor downwards.
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The Cook-house, where many appetising meals were coked by the boys every day.
A Signalling Tower.
The Car presented by the Scouts as a Wedding Present to Sir Robert and Lady Baden-Powell
Italy, Spain, Norway, and Sweden. This must have brought home to the onlookers the possibilities which lie before the Movement in bringing about a closer personal touch between the different branches of the British race, and a better understanding and sympathy with other nations through the comradeship of our brotherhood.
The Chief Scout's Message to the People of Birmingham.
"Before leaving Birmingham at the close of the Boy Scout Exhibition. I should like to say to the people of Birmingham how grateful I am for the very kindly support which they, each in their degree, accorded to the Scouts; from the free-spoken mechanic who, in summing up the Exhibition, said, 'There doesn't seem to be a ——— thing that these kids can't do,' to those who so generously allowed the boys to camp in their grounds—all seem to have shown the kindliest sympathy towards us. They appear to have recognised the fact that the Scout Movement is one intended to help the boys by a practical education, on the top of their school instruction, to get a fair start off in life. It is the want of some method to that end-in the present national system which allows so many of the poorer lads to drift into unemployedness and unemployableness. Our efforts in this direction have already met with an unexpected amount of success, and we are therefore endeavouring to expand our work among the poorer classes in the great cities.
"The Boy Scouts are non-military, non-sectarian, nonpolitical, non-class, and have therefore received the sympathy ​of every kind of supporter—some in most unlooked-for quarters.
"In Birmingham we have between 3,000 and 4,000 Boy Scouts; we ought to have twice that number, and could easily have them to-morrow—the boys are eager to join—if only we had the men to organise them. That is our present need. Men are coming into our brotherhood by hundreds elsewhere, but in Birmingham they are a little behindhand at the moment. I have, however, every hope, after this exhibition of what the boys can do for themselves, the men of Birmingham will come forward to help them.
"It only means a little sacrifice of time, which would otherwise be thrown away on golf, or watching cricket or football, to do a grand work for one's country, and the future generation in a way that is full of attraction and interest the moment it is taken up.
"I should indeed be glad to hear from those who care to join us through the Commissioner for Birmingham, Lord Hampton (Waresley Court, Kidderminster).
"Robert Baden-Powell.
"Birmingham. July 9."