President Rajapaksa Chief Guest at opening :

Centenary Jamboree of Sri Lanka Scouting

by L.S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

The Asia Pacific Regional Jamboree and the centenary celebrations of Sri Lanka scouting will be opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the chief scout of the Island at Dambulla today.

The Jamboree will be held from today till April 6. This is being organised by the Sri Lanka Scouts Association with the concurrence of the Executive Committee of the Asia Pacific Region of the world organisation of the scout movement based in the Philippines.

The Headquarters Commissioner Media - Prabath Kularatna said that Vice President of Philippines and the Chairman of the Asia Pacific Regional Scouts Committee Jejomar C. Binay will participate as a special guest. Over 1,500 scouts from 27 countries in Asia Pacific region and 6,000 from all parts of the country will participate in the celebrations.

This was the first ever international jamboree with such a large foreign contingent to be held in Sri Lanka, he said. Lord Baden Powell inaugurated the Scouts movement in 1907 in the Brownsie Island in England. In 1912 Francis George Stevenson a prominent planter introduced the scouting to Sri Lanka. The Scout contingent was established in the Christ Church College in Matale.