THE ARMY'S REPLY

Evening Star, Issue 13104, 10 November 1908, Page 8

THE ARMY'S REPLY

, TO REV. W. THOMSON. INDIGNATION MEETING. The-vehemence of the- speaking at the Salvation Army Barracks last night was notable, even when compared with what is being said at No-license meetings in general, just mow—and there is nothing mealymouthed about, the orators who appear at them. - The tone of the speeches at the Barracks- was * what one might naturally expect-after tho provocation given to the Army in the shape of an attempt to place their revered leader General Booth in the ranks of the supporters of “Continuance.” It was a genuine indignation meeting, ami was attended by the general public as well as Army people, the spacious barracks being very well filled. Mr A. S. Adorns was in the chair, and expressed particular gratification at being asked to preside at such a. gathering. When at- the inception of the No-license movement others were hanging bock and there was a difficulty in getting tho respectable element of society to say or do anything against the liquor traffic, the Army had stood out stalwart and strong, preaching total abstinence for tho individual and the banishment of the evil of strong drink from the land. This should be borne in grateful remembrance. The Army, had Helped to create a strong sense of public opinion against the liquor traffic. The No-license cause had progressed since then, but' the history of the Army here covered the whole period'of the advance of No-license towards the goal they seemed now almost on the eve of reaching.—(Loud applause.) The No-license vote at the triennial polls had grown since 1893. when it was first taken, as follows 1—48.000, 98.000. 22,000. 151,000, and nearly 200.000. No earthly power could stay its progress. Its adherents were no longer in a. minority, ns they had been when the Army started operations here. They were now in a position to dictate to the enemy, the meeting that night had been called because the revered and honored name of General Booth, the founder of the Army, had been mentioned by the supporters of the trade. “ You ard here to-night,” continued Mr Adams, to assist the Army officers to repel the infamous charge that has been laid at the door of the General—(applause)—and that the citizens of Dunedin may have the opportunity of saying that the slander is unworthy of the men who have uttered it. It is what they have been saying of pretty well everyone who raises his head in defence of the people against the organised liquor traffic.” Mr Adams reminded the audience that many years ago, on the morning of the election, tho town was placarded with handbills announcing the death of Benjamin Ward -Richardson, the late Queen's physician and a great exponent of Prohibition and total abstinence, and stating that just before he died ho expressed regret at the part he had played in the temperance movement. It turned out to be false—Richardson had not died. But the election was over before the lie could be overtaken and killed. The Methodists were now complaining that John Wesley was being dishonored in the same way as General Booth. John Wesley had stood strongly for total abstinence, and if he were here to-day he would be on that platform.—(Applause.) No more stupid move could have been made than this. Wherever the English language was spoken men and women would brand the statement as to General Booth as a falsehood.—(Applause.) Brigadier Albistou, of Christchurch, who is the Army’s principal officer in the .South Island, said that he deeply regretted that the Salvation Army had had to convene such a meeting to defend the unsullied name of General William Booth. “ I don’t think it is necessary for me or anyone else to give an emphatic denial to the statement that General Booth is in favor of the continuance of the liquor trade,” he continued. “ The position of the Army and of General Booth is well known. No person can be a soldier iir the Salvation Army unless he is a total abstainer. The articles of war he serves under sav that he will neither touch, taste, nor handle the cursed drink. . . ;. When I go through the streets of Christchurch and see in the public-houses—and possibly it is the same in Dunedin—tho picture of oar beloved General nty very blood bods within me, and I wonder how low- the Liquor party will stoop to vindicate themselves and carry on their work.—(Applause.) . One gentleman in Christchurch had the audacity to say that Albistou was a traitor to General Booth because I stood up in defence of General Booth. He said I was going the right way to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.—(Laughter.) . . Certainly we received money from the ln.de, hut will the Trade remember that all the money we get from them wo spend on their victims. Wc have a right to receive their subscriptions. But we are against the trade for its domination in politics, for its incessant efforts to debauch the suffrages of the country, for tne cowards it makes of public 'men, for its disregard of law, for its ruthless trampling on the solemn contract of State constitm tion, for its intolerance, its arrogance, its hypocrisy, its cant, its “graft,” and its false pretences. We are against it because of its greed and its avarice, its sordid love ot gam at any price, for the load it straps on Labor’s back, and for tho palsied hands it gives to ’Ioil; for tho home wrecks it catees. for the prisons it fills, for the insanity it begets, for the countless graves it has made in the paupere’ ground, for the moral rum it imposes on its victims, for the crimes it has committed, the homes it has destroyed, the grief it causes womanhood, for strangled aspirations, for its heartless cruelty to old age, and the shaclow thrown on the lives of children, for its' monstrous injustice to blameless little ones Because of its position in the land we hate it as virtue hates vice.—(Loud applause.) . . . This is the Army’s position, without any compromise whatever. The Salvation Army does not touch politics, but whilst we don’t particularly interest ourselves in political issues, we’ now have before us a very vital moral question which demands our attention, and I urge every Salvation Army woman and man this time to strike out the top line.”— (Rapturous applause.) He appealed to every woman to spare an hour and go to the polling booth on the 1/th inst., and continued that the drink party must be at their last gasp when they took the name of the one man who stood out in this twentieth century for works of mercy and goodness. General Booth in his last'book, which hat] not yet been circulated in New Zealand, declared himself emphatically against the drink traffic. Brigadier Albistou went on to quote from this book a passage in which General Booth declared the lives of men and women to have been “cursed for ever and for ever by the blackest curse humanity knows—the curse of the monster of strong drink.”—(Three cheers for General Booth were here given.) After reading other similar extracts, the Brigadier exclaimed: “Shame, upon tho Liquor party for saying -that he upholds the continuance of a trade which he curses with every breath he-draws.” General Booth, he continued, had never said “What is theuse of Prohibition when tho bulk of the people want drink.” He went on to explain that General Booth had been interviewed by Mr W. T. Stead last year, in the course of which he said; “ It is no use crying for the moon or attempting to enforce Prohibition when the majority of the people drink and wish to go on drinking; but you must do tho best yon can, and do it in the best way you can.” General Booth had been referring to England and the English Licensing BUI. “But what is the best way for New Zealand?” cried the Brigadier. “Strike out the top line.”— (Load applause.) “As the chief officer of the Army in the-South Island, I move—- ‘ Thaf rthis large meeting of Salvationists i and friends desire to express their indig- j nation at -this most unwarrantable use of our - beloved General’s name in the advertisements and handbills circulated by the Liuuor party throughout the Dominion, making it appear that General Booth is hostile : to the. No-license movement and favorable to " continuance.” Such statements being in direct opposition to the General’s example and teaching, we unhesitatingly pronounce these unscrupulous methods of the Liquor party to bolster up their unholy trade as being-worthy of the

condemnation of all truth-loving citizens.’ ” —Loud applause.) \ • Major.Bobs.(of ■ Christchurch),-in seconding the resolution, said ho thought He should congratulate the Liquor party on the way they had stirred the Armv. When the Army was stirred it -could, fight, and there was no mistake it had been stirred this time. The Liquor party were sending hundreds of people to the poll this year who had never gone there before. “Every puMicjm,” he'continued, “ knows that the Salvation Army is dead against him. We love the publican. Wc would do him ago a! turn to-morrow. It he gets kicked cut and eels run out of his license we wilt hud him a job. The Brigadier 'suggests to me that” the first job wc put him to is sending him round gathering emptv bottler. aughte’* and applause.) The resolution was put and declared carried tmammouslr mud Incn apnlauseMr John ileid, 8.A.. delivered an address elueflv romavkaole lor me vigor of its delivery. lie ; l.i!-d unu-ng oilier tilings that he believed the time wa.- not far distant when it wool.! !v> imnorriblo for anyone who was a be-s4t a drink seller of any kind, vholeuah m- retail, to lie a member or an office-bearer of the I’ivshvteri-:-; ( “i.i The Chairman, iv'ra.r- I , a statement made by .Mr R ( 4.1 in the' . arse <;f ruiio pointed sarcasm levelled a; the Lev. W.n. Thomson, mmui-.m.d tin; ;m hid hr' hoard tnat dav trim : (niave- (Pt. what had been dme to Ci-aeral Booth was contemplated in ivspvt ;.i one. tinleading PresbvUM-ian minc ■ in Cos City—oiib of the mast <v,;u vtod ministevs in Otago. the iuieni:;»i o! Dm 1.-qnor party was to .spring this on the eductors at the very last minute. Pastor Edmonds v.as the lot sp.-iker, and he gave a ouietly ■■• c Iv.- ad hess. Ho said that any e.aa-e b-.-y.I on IT? m,:;t perish. Ihe Liquor ir>r.; • -r; i cuiced of fraud and evasion. but- t hi? late; t m ,vn of theirs in vegan! to Cene".-.'i Booth and John Wesley was the. Id /c; ; boonieriiiig that had ever turned and rmitren them. “As long as the f.hiu-.iv party have the fool leaders't hey have hnd in the past the statement,-*" they send out will be the be.-t mauife:-toes’ the Xe-li-ceuse party ran use.” he- • I ired. They are doing the same' .\iner : -.-.—tarittriug, twisting, and perverting hi their attempt to justify and bolster up this unholy business. An eulhusiastie meeting broke up after 10 p.m. with a vote of thanks 'to the chair. '