SALVATION ARMY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 61, 14 March 1939, Page 10

SALVATION ARMY

OVERSEAS VISITOR

-■ YEARS' SERVICE

Commissioner David Cuthbert, who arrived at Wellington by the Wanganella today on Salvation Army business, has had fifty-four years' service in the Salvation Army. . He assisted the present General when she was a captain in London, he said, when it was a common occurrence for them to be pelted while conducting open-air meetings. Commissioner Cuthbert is a native of Perth, Scotland. He intended to become a newspaper reporter, but when he joined the Salvation Army his talents were turned to secretarial work and he has occupied several executive positions. Most of his work with the Army has been in London, and his present tour is being undertaken on behalf of General Evangeline Booth. On his way to New Zealand Commissioner Cutnbert visited Perth, Adelaide. Melbourne, and Sydney. The Australian Perth was a beautiful place, ■he said, and reminded him of his birthplace. He had inspected institutions in each centre and had crossed to New Zealand to meet Commissioner Adams on special business for the General. Commissioner Cuthbert said he retired last October, his last position being that of managing director of the Salvation Army Assurance Society. The society was now forty years old and he had seen it and the Army grow from small beginnings. In the early days of his Army life there had been a great deal of persecution, but that had all passed away. "People have got more sense now," he said. The assurance society had been formed to help members of the Army and its success was shown by its growth. It had paid out £11,000,000 and had funds amounting to £7,000,000 and an annual income of £1,500,000. Five years after he became an Army officer, Commissioner Cuthbert was appointed private secretary to Commissioner Carleton, who was then in charge of the Army's trading affairs. He later had twenty years' experience in assurance work, was appointed director of the Salvation Army emigration department, assistant secretary for trade affairs, governor of the Hadleigh Farm Colony, and finally managing director of the assurance society. He returned to active Army work at the request of the General, and will visit Canada after spending a week in New Zealand. j