It has come to my attention that the hierarchy of the Australian Girl Guides has forsaken the original Guide Law and Promise, as given by Lord Robert Baden Powell himself in 1910, and used successfully for 102 years.
The Girl Guides were established, with the Boy Scouts, by the King, under Royal Charter. The patrons of the movement are Her Majesty the Queen, and Her Vice regal representatives. The highest honour in the Guides is that of becoming a Queen’s Guide.
Yet, in the middle of the Diamond Jubilee, the Guides hierarchy has removed all mention of God and the Queen could not be as “contentious” as the hierarchy has asserted, or the Guides wouldn’t have any members to begin with. The originals were good enough for over a century of Australian Guiding, it seems. The members of the hierarchy, as well, made the original Promise and kept the old Law, when they joined, and so have perjured themselves.
The guides have always emphasised duty, and as Australia is a Kingdom, our duty is to serve our Queen. She is the Queen of all of us, not just some of us. Allegiance to Her Majesty is not political, as she is above politics, and does not take sides. She serves all her peoples, loyal and disloyal alike.
The Queen is as politically neutral and as universally national as the flag and the coat of arms, a fact well understood by the Guides until very recently. In 1999, Australians were given the free choice, and resoundingly rejected republicanism. In all decency and honour, republicans should accept the decision, stop sucking on sour grapes, give up such petulant pettiness, and grow up.
Also, why was all mention of helpfulness, politeness, obedience, care of property, care for animals, and self control omitted? Have these virtues, together with faith and loyalty, become “contentious” as well?
I can at least understand why loyalty and sisterhood, with all those good attributes; they would have exhibited more loyalty to their rightful Queen, and would have treated her, a fellow Guide, in a more sisterly fashion, and as an eighty-six-year-old lady, with more respect.
The movement owes its very existence to the monarchy. Those who find the old Guide Law and Promise “contentious” do not belong in the Girl Guides. If the original Law and Promise are not restored, the Girl Guides will simply be no longer the Girl Guides. The Australian Guiding movement will have died an ignominious death in July 2012.
Yours for God and the Queen.
Steven Harrison
Killarney
