Figure 1.--Here a group of Chiro memners lay a wreath, I'm not sure what monument or grave is being honored. These boys wear the original dark briown shirt uniform.

We have a limited amount of information on Chiro. We see a lot of Scout activities, but there camping and outdoor activies do not seem to be central to Ciro as they are for Scouting. Some traditional Scout activities like camping are not nearly as important to Chiro as in traditional Scouting. Because of its base in Flanders, there is a special interest in Flemish issues. We have a limited amount of information on Chiro. We see a lot of Scout activities, but there camping and outdoor activies do not seem to be central to Ciro as they are for Scouting. Some traditional Scout activities like camping are not nearly as important to Chiro as in traditional Scouting. Because of its base in Flanders, there is a special interest in Flemish issues. Chiro often participates in a variety of public social and national activities as well as religious activities. Hopefully Chiro memembers will tell us more about their activities. Chiro often participates in a variety of public social and national activities as well as religious activities. Chiro seems to come with a lot less historical or ideological "baggage" than either the Catholic or the non-Church-run Boy Scouts. Chiro boys do not always camp in tents. They sometimes stay in abandoned military barracks and even in youth hostels. There is plenty of rhetoric in their songs and in the chaplain’s sermon, and it has a distinct medieval flavour.

Camping

Chiro boys do not always camp in tents. They sometimes stay in abandoned military barracks and even in youth hostels. There is plenty of rhetoric in their songs and in the chaplain’s sermon, and it has a distinct medieval flavour. A tyical song is We are soldiers guarding the citadel of Christ the King. Their bands call their instruments medieval names like lansquenet drums. Chiro bands are superior to anything I have seen in the scouting movement. (One wonders why Lord BP did not impart that fine British tradition of military bands onto his Scouts). [HBC note: English Scouts do have a strong Scout band component, but it is not common in other countries.]

Civic Events

Cooking

About the cooking policy I have, a HBC reader, reports having his own experience--a striking example. When he was a Boy Scout in Antwerp, he was asked to help out a camping Chiro group of 60 boys whose cook had had an accident. They were willing to peel patatoes and some even helped with the dough, but apart from that they were quite uncapable of preparing a meal for themselves and this included the leaders.

Outdoor Activities

Chiro seems to come with a lot less historical or ideological "baggage" than either the Catholic or the non-Church-run Boy Scouts, for example, I could find no particular emphasis on outdoor skills, or on communing with nature (at least not in the slightly mystical way of Baden-Powell's rhetoric), or even on developing the kids' self-reliance: it even appears that while away at camp their meals are prepared for them by adults, which I think most people in "real" scouting would find a pretty appalling idea. Rather, the activities appear to emphasise recreational games with no very obvious educational element. Music plays a stronger part than with the average boy scouts. A Belgian reader comments that all depends on how one defines "ideological baggage". I do agree that the "Baden Powell content" of Chiro groups is very limited. But ideology there is, and it is steeped in Roman Catholicism, centering around Christ the King and the veneration of the Virgin Mary. Of late more concern with third world affairs has been much emphasized. [HBC note: This is an interesting development. The history of European colonialism in Africa is not a felicitous one. But of all the colnial powers, the Belgian colonial administration of the Congo by Leopold I and his decsenc\dents is perhaps the most brutal an explotive.]

Religious Activities