A Town of Scouts Will Camp At Sutton Coldfield (1956)
By John Baker.
(As published in the "Express and Star," Wolverhampton, on October 4th).
Next summer's mammoth jubilee, "J.I.M.", at Sutton Park, features the greatest scout army seen in Britain for 28 years .... 36,000 in an international force as big as two wartime military divisions. In a 20-mile radius around this monster festival another division of some 15,000 scouts will be encamped ready to visit the Park during the July 29 - August 14 celebrations. In all, 78 countries will send scouts to the J.I.M., staged to celebrate the birth centenary of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting, and in celebration of the movement's 50-year milestone.
What is a J.I.M.?
In full - "Jamboree Indaba Moot" : Jamboree, a camp of boy and senior scouts ; Indaba, a gathering of world scouting officers ; Moot, for Rover Scouts aged 18-24. Normally, World Jamborees are held every fourth year. Last year's was in Canada. The 1957 event is a special "extra" in the series.
Figures give an impressive idea of the Sutton Park army, which will be visited daily by an estimated 90,000 visitors. There will be 25,000 scouts, plus 5,000 rovers, 5,000 "scouters," 1,000 camp staff—the whole in nine unit camps, plus headquarters, and camp centre. Of these, 8,750 will be British, Germany heading the foreign "invasion" with a regiment of 2,600. Smallest contingent : Mauritius, one scout.
More figures show the grandeur of one of the biggest scouting shows on earth ; each day base camp will require 20,000 loaves of bread, 10,000 gallons of milk, 500,000 gallons of water—and some 20,000 postal packets to be daily handled by the camp post office. This means the organisers face the task of feeding a canvas town in population roughly half the size of Chester. It would be easier if all the scouts ate English food. But, of course, racial and religious characteristics denote many unusual diets ... and these must be assisted. World jamborees are noted for their comfort under canvas.
Sutton Coldfield's authorities are already supervising preliminary contract work in the Park, and Midland councils have answered an S.O.S. for 1,200 dustbins. Furthermore, English scouts have removed 50 tons of stones from the camp sites. When the big show opens, police and fire services will be helped by camp police totalling 120 scouts, and a battle-squad of 24 fire-fighters. In this great phalanx of budding manhood there will be only a few women . . . cubmasters who are entitled to attend the Indaba. But representatives of Scouting's sister movement, the Girl Guides, will be invited to various ceremonies during the J.I.M.
What will the visitor see when he passes through the 56-foot steel entrance archway. Scouts everywhere - under canvas, in troops of 32 on quarter-acre plots ; scouts cooking, out in working parties, printing newspapers, staging exhibitions, building gateways, parading and giving displays in the 10,000-seat arena, playing in the camp theatre, acting as guides, and, of course, holding camp-fire sessions. The aim of J.I.M. is to foster international goodwill in a working fellowship, and one highly popular feature is the scout-to-scout "swopping" of hampers filled with titbits, and, sometimes, valuable souvenirs. In 1957, some of the most valuable souvenirs will be the special issue of J.I.M. postage stamps.
One day during the Jubilee the Park population will swell further as it receives thousands of Britain's Wolf Cubs on a goodwill visit. They will certainly set a new Cub "gate" record for any one event. Britain's previous greatest J.I.M. was at Arrowe Park, Birkenhead, in 1929, when Scouting celebrated its coming of age. But Sutton Park will be greater in significance if not in numbers.
Following the J.I.M., "Hospitality Committees" throughout the country will help foreign scouts who want to stay on in Britain for sightseeing. Those committees are already hard at work.
It is thanks to backroom workers that the Boy Scout Movement is still a powerful counterpull to the tentacles of juvenile delinquency and adolescent apathy.
