THE SALVATION ARMY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 77, 3 April 1899, Page 3

THE SALVATION ARMY.

CHAT WITH GENEEAL BOOTH.

The veteran founder of the Salvation Army, General Booth was.waited upon by a representative ot tne lucSand 'Star' on Saturday afternoon at the residence of Dr A.v. Knight, Ponsonby. Although the General is a busy man he- P^ptly signified his willingness to be inter viewed, dryly remarking:, I am aiVwly S pleased to meet journalists for it is so seldom you can get at them in church that I like to have a chance to speak to them occasionally in private. I don't know how ft is you know, but Pressmen as a rule sIZ hard to impress. When a whole congregation" is moved, I b*we noticed the Pressmen sitting £**£ unmoved expression on their lace, just as if religion was no joneernoi theirs. Mind you, I dont believe they are as hard as they pretend to be' added the General, smilingly, as if he had just had an after-thought. After such a genial welcome it was but natural £hat an enjoyable conversation should follow, for General Booth is undoubtedly a remarkable man, essentially a strong one, and even now, when he has almost reached three score years and ten, he still presents a tall, straight, imposing figure, set off by the officer's Siiorm of the Salvation Army. But for his long grey beard General Booth would not appear anything like a man seventy years of age, for his eves are keen and bright, and his voice 7 strong, while his manner of conversation is far more . vigorous than that of many a man half his lie. In the conversation which followed the General spoke freely, and occasionally rising from his chair when particularly interested spoke.m a ringing voice, and with a vigour franscending his bodily weakness, $K3. e£dently caused apprehension to his son, Commandant Booth, who

was also present, apparently to see that his father's earnestness should not. result in overtaxing his strength. THE GENERAL AND THE PREMIER.

Referring to his recent visit to Wellington, General Booth spoke of th Eight Hon. R. J, Seddon in high terms of admiration, evidently recognizing in our Premier another strong leader of men. 'What astonished me about Mr Seddon,' said the General, 'was the way he knew all about people. As we were walking ana in arm down the street he stopped and introduced me to a gentleman, remarking that he was married to a Salvationist, and had come all the way from New Plymouth to see me. The morning I left Wellington Mr Seddon was down at 0.30 o'clock to see me off. He seemed very much interested in our work.'

OVER-SEA COLONIES. Having signified that he was ready to be put to the question, the General was asked with regard to his over-sea colony scheme ,and the recent acquisition of a large, area of land in Western Australia.

'The Western Australia, land is not for the submerged tenth,' said the General. 'There appears to be an objection to emigration in these colonies. I don't know why, for one would think population is what is required in these new lands. I suppose the chief fear is that a criminal class may be introduced. On that land "we propose 'to place the people of West Australia, t It is not an oversea colony scheme. With regard to that scheme I have two difficulties to face—on the one hand too many people and too little land, on the other two much land and people who are so few in number that they want it all for themselves. About a thousand acres per baby is about the idea in these colonies.' The real difficulty in this matter is the working man in the colonies. The better educated and more intelligent portion of the community see the, desirableness of the scheme, but when they are politicians,** you see, their position depends upon the votes of the others.'

'Have you then abandoned the oversea colony scheme?' 'By no means. I am now looking towards Ehodesia, as these colonies do not want population. Mr Cecil Ehodes has visited Hadleigh, and was immensely interested. We have spent £120,000 upon that place, and it is now self-suporting, and next year or the year after I expect it even to pay interest on the capital invested, which will provide funds for carrying on the good work elsewhere. My object is not only to save these people from the misery they were in, but also to do so in a way that will make them pay the cost of the operation. I understand tlie Government have an experimental farm in New Zealand which does not pay. I will undertake to make it pay by my scheme, benefit those placed on it, and also greatly improve the property at the same time, but it will be by practical and not experimental farming.' At this juncture Commandant Booth referred to his interview with the Cabinet, and said the object was to take the Protestant boys from the State and place them on a farm instead of crowding them together in an industrial school. He added: —'We should save the boys and improve the land by the one process.' 'As to the girls,' added the General, 'we make those at Hadleigh into domestic servants, and we havb"i_ot half enough to supply the demand, that is, properly trained ones who have been rescued from their former mode of life and taught obedience to authority. A servant who will do as she is told and knows what to do is always sure of getting a place.' Do you consider the system of government of the Salvation Army is suited to democracies?

It should be. It is for the people, by the people, and of the people, and what is most important of all, it succeeds, and the people like it.

At the same time the whole power is not in the hands of the individual members. For instance, in the event of your decease what would be the result?

The same wire that conveyed the intelligence of my death would very probably state who had been appointed my Successor. That is scarcely according to Democratic ideas.

You see ours is an army. You could not have soldiers in an ordinary army meeting together and having a sort' of council to decide which regiment should go to the front and what man should command. I believe in the government of the wisest and best. The officers are the best men who can be selected, and they in turn select the chief officer. I believe in the best men saying who shall govern. Of course, there are men who like to vote who shall do the work, but do not like to work themselves. I speak now of army government, which is distinct from the 'rules regulating the government of countries. As near as possible, I contend ours is a Democratic form, of government.

PEOGEESS OF THE AEMY. The General then spoke at some length* on the progress made by the Salvation Army. Eeferring to the remarks sometimes made about the. Army changing'its uniform to suit different nationalities, he said:—'We accommodate ourselves as much as possible to the customs of the land we are in. If it is going down, then we only go down to fetch the others up, I must confess that nothing was such a torture to me in India as trousers, and I was always glad to get out of them and put on a costume that suited the climate. We are doing a great work in India and as far as possible to get them to forget we belong to the governing class. We have 1150 officers in India, of whom 1030 are natives, though (with a smile) I must admit the Britisher generally leads. We do not interfere in politics, and we welcome all organisations or individuals who work for' the uplifting, of humanity.' Prohibitirfi is an important question in this colony and has become a political one. How would the Army act under such circumstances?.

We are all prohibitionists, and our people will vote for prohibition to a man. At the same time I personally should be sorry to see that measure carried unless by such an overwhelming majority that it would be settled for ever.

WOEK IN OTKEE COUNTEIES. General Booth said: 'So far the Army has hot started work in China. That is in our twentieth century scheme. We are getting on in Switzerland, but that is a Democratic Government, and the laws are to some extent against us. Until three years ago we had great difficulties to face in Ger-

many. Last time I was in Stuttgart I

I had a congregation of 32 people, in- J j eluding- six policemen. The police I | were there to help us keep order, for | Germany is undermined with Social- | I ism. If a man called out they closed j ! the meeting and put up v notice that j there would not be any meeting the I next night. You see they did not , understand us. For the last three years we made great progress, and when I went to Berlin people paid 14s to 15s for seats, aud we have now 20 corps running, and if I only had ,- officers that could speak German a ! large number of other branches could .

be started, nnd would be self-support*

ing from the first. If we could only get into Russia that would be a great field, but they simply won't have us. The priesthood is too powerful yet.' After an hour's pleasant conversation, in the course of which the General touched on many interesting subjects, the 'Star' representative rose to bid farewell. General Booth is,

however, a man who never misses a chance to push forward his life's work,' and the interview terminated with a prayer, in which the founder of the Salvation Army specially petitioned for blessings on the press.