Manawatu Daily Times The Salvation Army’s Crisis

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6811, 15 January 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times The Salvation Army’s Crisis

'J'HE fact that all the world is interested in the struggle going on between the stricken head of the Salvation Army and the High Council is convincing proof of the hold which that great organisation has obtained on the imagination and affections of the people in almost every country in the world. It must be obvious to everyone that the question at issue is not a personal one. It is purely one of policy. The great services which General Bramwell Booth have rendered to the Army and through it to his fellow men have earned him the whole-hearted devotion of his great following. But even his best friends doubt the expediency of a system which vests not only the spiritual authority but the vast financial burden of the great world-wide organisation in the hands of one human being.

It is not generally known (says the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian in an issue of November last) that while General Booth is lying ill at his home in a state of utter exhaustion that is causing great anxiety to his staff and the whole Army he is not able to free himself from all his duties in controlling the Army. He still has to sign many documents of immediate importance because it is impossible foi him to grant power of attorney to anyone else.

“By its foundation deeds,” says the Law Journal, the General alone has power to expend on behalf of the Army all moneys contributed for its purposes and he has an unfettered power to buy, sell, and deal with land, and to lend 01 give any property as he deems necessary in the interests of the Army. He possesses similar power over property which comes undei the social trusts of the Australasian branch of the Salvation Army." The writer suggests the inexpediency of laying such a vast burden on one pair of shoulders, and points out that the “ present unfortunate and somewhat prolonged illness of General Booth might easily jeopardise the whole future of the great work founded by his illustrious father”

But General Booth, of course, foresaw that an emergencymight arise, and after consultation with his officers, with some outside friends, and with eminent lawyers, including Mr. Justice Sergeant—who acted as the Army’s counsel—and the late J.ord Oxford and Lord Haldane, a second main trust deed was added to the foundation deed of 1870. This makes provision for the calling together of the commissioners, and certain leading officers of the Army, and empowers them as the High Council to remove and appoint the Geneial in the event of the General becoming and being adjudged incompetent or unable to act. The High Council could be called together on a requisition signed by seven commissioners, and presented to the chicf-of-Staff. * ~

It has never hitherto been necessary to call the High Council, but the commissioners have had to decide whether, in view of the General’s prolonged illness, and the likelihood that his illness would be aggravated by the transaction of the business still necessarily thrust on him, they should not, alike in his interest, and for the sake of keeping in action the Army s elaborate financial machinery, and the intricate work of the organisation, call the Council. They felt they must do so, and in the first week of January the commissioners from all parts of the world assembled in London, and the results of the deliberations have been one of the ne\ys sensations of the past few days. They have called on General Booth to abdicate and he is said to have defied them. The outcome of this deadlock will be of considerable historic interest and fraught with gieat consequences to the future of the Salvation Army.