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Roland
became a sort of scouting missionary. For two years he laboured,
encouraging the growth of the movement.
He had a special gift of finding
leaders and founding troops. Above all things he insisted
that the Patrol System was the essence of scouting.
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He went to Liverpool for six months after leaving Oxford, working
in the office of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company with a view
to learning the technique of shipping business. All his evenings
were devoted to work in the Seamen's Mission or in the local Missions
that look after the dockhands and other casual workers. On his
return to London, where he worked for a while in the Union Castle
Steamship Company's office, he renewed his interest in the East
End, and decided to live, as long as he was free to do so, in
the slums of Bethnal Green. He became Scout Commissioner for East
and North-East London and Assistant Commissioner for Wales; but
before assuming these offices he perfected his knowledge of Scouting
by personal practice and made himself an ideally efficient scout
master. He was, indeed, one of the ablest exponents of scoutcraft,
and wrote several popular books on the subject. Of these the most
important was "The Patrol System", which explains the working
of a scout patrol, and in a series of "Letters to a Patrol Leader",
which expound the principles of the scout law and give advice
as to how to train tenderfoots so that they may pass the tests
required of them. It is a complete training manual in itself,
written with a simplicity and directness that shows how well he
understood the mentality of his boys. These small books outline
his views and these can still be read with interest for there
is much wisdom underlying the dated style and the old organisational
structure.
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