THE SALVATION ARMY.

Evening Star, Issue 20076, 17 January 1929, Page 8

THE SALVATION ARMY.

The irresistible force has met the irremovable object in the conflict between General Booth and his high command. The.sick General has refused to resign; he would be false to his trust if he did i so, as he views the position, when the I council which would force him to that step has no power to make changes in the Army’s constitution or to appoint his successor. The council takes a different view of its powers. The matter can only be decided now in the courts. The dominant feeling in the public mind must be “ the pity of it!” The wrangle is cruel to the General, a stricken man. It threatens to be equally cruel in its 1 effects on the Arniy if it is continued. 1 Disruption in that great beneficent cr-

ganisation would be a blow to social work which is world-wide. It would be a new occasion for sneers to every enemy of religion. The public, which watches the struggle with pained absorption, cannot judge, the minds of the officers who, by whatever motives inspired, have been bringing pressure to bear on an infirm leader. It has reason to regard them from their records as something better than mere “honourable men,” but the motives that are able to sway men can he more complex than they themselves understand. Apparently for some time past there had been discontent among a section with the one-man control of the Army, which has had mixed effects for its work, but it had not reached outsiders’ ears. The work had gone on expanding, so far as they could see, with all its old efficiency and zeal. The one-man system, however its absolutism may bo tempered in practice, is an anachronism. Certain members of the Bootli family themselves were the‘first to revolt against it in an earlier day. It was natural that the present General, who had a large part in the Army’s inception and was its working chief for years before ho assumed the title, should succeed ins father; but if a Booth dynasty had to be accepted it could only mean that, sooner or later, a man would be appointed to tho principal place who would lack the necessary qualities for command. To the outsider it would seem Hint the High Council might have met the present position by a more moderate course. Tho general, it is evident, is a very sick man. He is in his seventyfourth year. It might have accepted the proposal for a council of regency to act during his illness, and passed a resolution that, when the time came for appointing a permanent successor, that would be a matter for decision by tire Army as a whole. It is a difference of opinion, not a difference of friendship, which lias arisen between the general and his officers. Tho present tension has been caused by it because it has been concerned with tho most fundamental issues, but it is unfortunate that the conflict should have had to be pressed so sternly at this particular time. The secrecy surrounding the deliberations at Sunbury and the drastic acts by which the council lias been moved to assert its authority have not-tended to make tho struggle appear more edifying. It would bo much bettor if the issue could 1)0 settled without a contest in the courts.