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TheSkolta Esperanto Ligo (SEL)[1] brings togetherEsperanto-speakingScouts from all over the world.
The thirdWorld Esperanto Congress was held in 1907 inCambridge, England. It is probable thatLord Baden-Powell was aware of the proceedings. After the first Scout camp which atBrownsea later that year, Baden-Powell was writing his bookScouting for Boys covering the method in which Scouting could be adapted to youth. This work appeared in the form of six small booklets, published every two weeks. The first of the series appeared on January 15, 1908, and the series had so much success that in May of the same year, the set was published in the form of a unified book. In the third book of the series, Baden-Powell advised the Scouts as recourse to use the international language Esperanto as a "secret language of the patrol". The passage in question disappeared in some later editions,[2] however one could read on page 202 ofScouting for Boys, in the original version:
The fact that Baden-Powell mentioned Esperanto inScouting for Boys is interesting in that Baden-Powell held Esperanto in regard and that he had spoken about it with his wife, LadyOlave Baden-Powell. Indeed, after B-P's death, in a 1950 letter to Mrs. Dr.Lydia DeVilbis, Lady Olave wrote "I often thought that it would be splendid ifMrs. Roosevelt could convince theUnited States to make Esperanto accepted in the whole world and to introduce it into the programs of all schools and organizations. It would really be of the highest importance for the world and especially useful for good understanding between people who are divided because of the diversity of languages." Mrs. Roosevelt was, at the time of this letter, president of the Committee of Human Rights of theUnited Nations. This perhaps helped prepare the ground for recommendations ofUNESCO in favor of Esperanto proclaimed in 1954 and 1985.
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Following the immediate spread of Scouting in 1907, it soon became apparent to many that the Scouts might really be able to succeed at the experiment of international fraternity.Alexander William Thomson, leader of anEnglish troop, had the idea on a French battlefield in 1918 to found an international Esperanto speaking Scouting organization to support international friendship and exchange of services. In order to cure the linguistic problems, he recommended Esperanto as an international means of communication. The same year saw the foundation of theLeague of Esperanto-speaking Scouts as an international Scout organization, which thus predates theWorld Organization of the Scout Movement, though not theOrder of World Scouts from 1911. Much is unknown about what Baden-Powell thought of Esperanto, but he liked the idea of an international Scout organization; two years later, in 1920, the World Bureau of Scouting was founded, however without using Esperanto, havingEnglish andFrench as official languages.
A.W. Thomson became president of the League of Esperanto-speaking Scouts, and his brotherK. Graham Thomson the Secretary of Honor. Thereafter,Norman Booth, another BritishScoutmaster became secretary-general of honor and seceded with treasurerD.H. David to organize the Skolta Esperanto Ligo (SEL). This new association organized multiple international Scout camps to achieve its goals and to test the use of Esperanto in Scouting: in 1922 in theNetherlands, 1923 inBelgium, 1924 inDenmark, 1925 inSpain, 1926 inCzechoslovakia (there were even radio broadcasts inPrague about Scouting in Esperanto), 1927 in Spain, 1928 in Belgium, 1929 during theWorld Jamboree inEngland, 1930 in the Netherlands, a camp in which participated a SEL member,Harold Wilson, who would becomePrime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976). Almost 100 Esperanto speaking Scouts from 18 countries, as far away as Japan, took part in the 1929 World Jamboree inBirkenhead.
On August 22, 1969, the Skolta Esperanto Ligo officially presented the first Esperanto-language Scout book, "Ĵamborea Lingvo" (the Jamboree's Language), to members of the World Scout Conference held inHelsinki, Finland. A new version appeared in 1995.
"La Skolta Mondo"[4] is the official bulletin of the SEL.
