This one story brings out people on Mudcat who link it with concentration camps, accuse it of militarising youth, and persecuting atheists!

I'm sure you're aware, Keith, that one of the consequences of a movement as successful as Scouts (under their various nomenclatures) is that the movement affects and is affected by the whole gamut of what goes on in the world.

His southern African experiences formed his view that Britain's youth was not up to maintaining the expectations that came with British notions that their people (and, specifically, the English) were the pinnacle of human development and abilities. So he started the Scouts along paramilitary lines for essentially paramilitary purposes. At the time (and for the next 30 years or so) this was par for the course; because it was (initially) English this was seen as "good" and even when Hitler used the same ideas and practices for the same purposes it was seen as "more or less acceptable".

Baden-Powell was an exceptional product of his time as was the Scouting movement; times have changed, we've changed and Scouting has changed. We hope that all three have changed for the better, because we can all identify faults in all three as we go back into history. The behaviour of the scouts described in the OP is appalling and unacceptable, even though it might have been the consequence of something as minor as a misconstrued sense of humour. The fact that it is unusual should be a comfort to you (and us as well?) and is almost certainly the reason it got onto Mudcat.

Cheers, Rowan