LONDON’S SLUMS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 7 April 1931, Page 9

LONDON’S SLUMS

SALVATION ARMY'S WORK. SPIRIT OF SERVICE. The typical slum dweller of London is a homourist, an optimist, a lover of flowers, as is. seen by the many win-dow-boxes filled with pansies, London pride and mignonette in the narrow streets in the /slums, streets where there are no gardens in front or behind the houses, where in some cases those houses are back to hack with' those in the next street, and tenant- 1 ed by many families. In these districts Salvation Army officers are working, tending the sick and aged, holding meetings for. slum children and tired mothers, doing maternity work, ready with bucket and scrubbing brush, and it is found that in the Army Training Golegc the finest characters eagerly offer for slum work. Truly the spirit of service is not dead, and these officers are there not for handsome salary arid ample pension but are doing service for service sake. All over London are large hostels where lihc| poorest are ihoused leach night in large, airy dormitories, for 2d arid 4d, or in single cubicles for 6d aj night. There are the Army’s hoarders, part of the big Salvation Army family, many of them standing all day in the streets with flowers, fruit, second-hand clothes, mechanical toys, jellied eels — the hawkers of London.

Frequently through the kindness of newspaper companies, which appeal for funds to send poor children for a day in the country, the Army Captain is approached to find the children and workers, all expenses being paid by the funds, for a happy day in Doping Forest where grasses and daises and buttercups can he picked to take home to mother. The Old Motherland, like its fair daughter New Zealand, has a tender heart and responds gonerously to the cry of the poor and needy, and the longings of little children. The principles of the Salvation Army social work are: Help for the worst, change of circumstances where possible, work for the willing, a chance lor all, ultimate physical, social and spiritual regeneration. The social work of the Salvation Army is necessary and it supplies the means by which men and women can gratify their human longings and assist in Godlike enterprise.