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Aid to stranded Russian scouts
MELBOURNE: The Federal
Government had stepped in to help
four Russian scouts whose historic
visit to Australia is in jeopardy, the
Scout Association said yesterday.
The three boys and an adult leader
were due to arrive in Melbourne on
Friday, but are stranded in St Peters
burg because they cannot get pass
ports amid the bureaucratic chaos
after the dismantling of the Soviet
Union.
The four want to be the first Rus
sian scouts to attend Australia's na
tional jamboree, to begin in Ballarat
on January 3.
The association said it had re
ceived no reply to appeals to the
Prime Minister, Paut Keating, but
had contacted the Minister for For
eign Affairs, Minister Garcth Evans.
The International Commissioner,
Richard Simpson, said, "Senator Ev
ans has directed his staff to brief the
Australian Ambassador in Moscow
to assist the four Russians however
possible."
The embassy had said already that
it would process the scouts' entry
visas immediately after they pro
duced passports.
"But if things aren't settled by the
Russian Government by the end of
their Sunday, a working day, then
we've lost the race," Mr Simpson
said.
Mr Simpson said he had been in
touch with scouting contacts in Rus
sia who said the bureaucracy had
"ground to a halt".
The Australian jamboree, which
runs from January 3 to 11, would
have been the first to receive an
official visit by Russian scouts.
Mr Simpson said scouting had
been banned in the Soviet Union in
the 1920s for being incompatible
with communist principles.
The re-emergence of scouting has
been helped in part by countries
such as Australia, in which local
scouts were hosts recently of victims
of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Australian scouts donated $2500
toward funding the trip by the re
cently formed St Petersburg scouts,
and Qantas agreed to provide their
transport.
A total of 300 scouts from 25
countries will join 15,000 Australian
scouts for the jamboree, which is
held every three years in Australia.
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