SALVATION ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 148, 19 December 1929, Page 17

SALVATION ARMY

THE TRUST PROPERTY ISSUE OF A WRIT (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, Ist November treneral Higgins, the head of the Salvation Army, has authorised the issue of a writ seeking the transfer of trust property-from the estate of the late General Bramwoll Booth. Two of the executors of the late General are Mrs. Booth and Commissioner Catherine Booth. tiv^s of siatemont ™ade to representatives of the Press, General Higgins declared that the action was in % sense a quarrel with the Booth, family It wa s being taken solely, he said, in order ll ref."i anße th<3 position, and to end the difficult situation in which the action of the High Council early this year, and the subsequent death of General BramweU Booth, had placed him. Opportunity was also taken to deny categorically allegations that a "vendetta was being waged against individual membera of the Booth family m along explanatory memorandum regarding the decision to take legal action, the following statements are "Formerly the administrative control of and the legal title to the Salvation Army property came together at the same time in the same person. General Bramwell Booth, a short time before his death, executed a short codieu, which caused the trust property to vest, not in his successor, but in a ooay of three executors, consisting of Mrs Booth, Commissioner Catherine Booth, and Mr. Sneath. Thus, for the nrst time, the administrative control and the legal title became divorced trom each other. ''When the executors were applied to tor a transfer of the trust property to General Higgins, they desired time in which to get advised upon the posiTh?'<fi* Geaeral Higgins1 acquiesced. The Solicitor-General, Sir James Melyme, K.C., was consulted, and his opinion was against further limitation about the validity of the 1904 deed, and in favour of a transfer of the trust property to General Higgins. 'Notwithstanding the Solicitor-Gen-eral s opinion,, the executors were unwilling to make the transfer. They said (and with perfect truth) that this was only an opinion, and not by any means the same thing as an Order of the Court, which latter would have reSieved them from any possibility of personal responsibility. '"Faced with this continued unwilhngness General Higgins instructed Army solicitors to take legal opinion w W£r ~as .Ms P^per duty to his trust. Mr. Gavin Simonds, K.C., and Mr. J. H. Stamp gave the following rfllli! 1? T °P.inion a Point has been reached at which the only step opeu to General Higgins is to invoke the assistance of the Court, and in our opinion it is his plain duty to take this step. It is clear that nothing but an Order of the Court will induce the executors to place the property and funds of the. Salvation Army under the control of General Higgins, and it is imperative that such an order should now be applied for.' "General Higgins, .therefore, with the greatest reluctance ana sorrow,' has been compelled: to authorise the issuine of the necessary writ to the Chancery Division." *