NEW YORK (LNS) — The Boy Scout movement has long been regarded as a paramilitary indoctrination course for Western Civilization’s children.

Now a Massachusetts autograph dealer is offering for sale a letter which confirms that view of the Scout movement. The letter, dated Oct. 16, 1928, was written by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. It is addressed to a friend and financial supporter of the organization.

“We have now some 60,000 scouts in London,” wrote Baden-Powell, “and are tapping the poorer slum districts, as antidote to the red poison which is being industriously dropped there. Our great need is to make camping possible for them since it is a counter-attraction to communism which the boys cannot resist.”