The Boy Scouts of the Panama Canal Zone were founded in 1947, recognized by the

World Organization of the Scout Movement The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM ) is the largest international Scouting organization. WOSM has 173 members. These members are recognized national Scout organizations, which collectively have around 43 million participants. WOS ...

in 1955, and had 970 members in 1957. The organization had ties to the

Boy Scouts of the United Nations The Boy Scouts of the United Nations existed from 1945 through perhaps the early 1980s as the Scouting association serving the families of diplomats and staff of the United Nations, active in both Geneva and at Parkway Village in New York. The or ...

, and existed at least through the 1960s, directly registered to the

World Scout Bureau The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM ) is the largest international Scouting organization. WOSM has 173 members. These members are recognized national Scout organizations, which collectively have around 43 million participants. WOSM ...

. A delegation from the IBSCZ attended the 14th World Scout Jamboree in Norway in 1975. In 1937

J. S. Wilson Colonel John Skinner "Belge" Wilson (1888–1969) was a Scottish scouting luminary and friend and contemporary of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, General Baden-Powell, recruited by him to head the International Bureau, later to be ...

met with Gunnar Berg and Ray Wyland of the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

Balboa, Panama Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. History The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spani ...

, on his way to

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

, for a conference about mixed-race Scouts in the

Panama Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...

, who claimed

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and not

Panamanian Panamanians (Spanish: ''Panameños'') are people identified with Panama, a transcontinental country in Central America (a region within North America) and South America, whose connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For mo ...

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...

. It was agreed that they should be taken under the wing of the

Canal Zone Council There have been American Scouts overseas since almost the inception of the movement, often for similar reasons as the present day. Within the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), these expatriate Scouts are now served by two overseas Councils and the Dire ...

of the Boy Scouts of America, but in 1947 they were transferred directly under the

International Bureau The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM ) is the largest international Scouting organization. WOSM has 173 members. These members are recognized national Scout organizations, which collectively have around 43 million participants. WOS ...

as the International Boy Scouts of the Canal Zone.

References

{{reflist * *Michel, Rudi; Reinhard Schmoeckel; Hans Gerhard Rumpf (1963). Der Kornett Heft 5 Pfadfinderbewegung (in German). Minden: Bund Deutscher Pfadfinder Landesmark Westfalen, 50. *Edward G. Wood; Kenneth Brookes (1960). Uniforms and Badges of the World (2nd Revised Edition). London, Liverpool, Prescot: The Boy Scouts Association, 17.

External links

*http://www.czimages.com/CZMemories/MiscPages/czindex.htm Youth organizations established in 1947 Scouting and Guiding in Panama 1947 establishments in the United States