GENERAL BOOTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, Issue LIV, 15 June 1920, Page 7

GENERAL BOOTH

INTERVIEWED' AT CHRISTCHURCH. <ieneia| Booth gave an interview to rc pro-scuta lives of the Christchurch ncwspcipe-ns in a. body/ The interview took place in the presence of two visiting commissioners, one ot‘ whom acted ns aide-de-camp. The General sat close up to a sanali table with a.i e-me-trical .hearing apparatus aloug.si le, and iu a few seconds ii.o was telling in narrative- form the .history of the Army’s operations and aspirations. A smiling i’ace under silvery-grey hair, Iris looks suggested intellect anci hujmor, as well as determination and humility. He wore a dark blue uniform with black near the sleeves, the letter “8” in. red. on his collar, anci a thin strip of gold braid mi each shoulder -strap. In the course of tbo interview General Booth said education was becoming somewhat of a fetish, to-day. It was overdone, because it was so one-sided, being all directed towards the intellectual instead of partly towards the .training of character and the instruction of the soul. There was t 0 his vniud not the slightest doubt that Germanv owed her , downfall to that reason. For the past quarter of a century of his experience, her education been purely towards the materiabhmd the intellectual, to tire ex‘clusion, of the spiritual and, in a curious way, oi the philosophical—in fact, her education had resulted iu man without God. “I am an optimist, and I a>m lull of hope for the world,” General Booth proceeded. “I am sure things are going to be better. I„.a.m sorry, however, that organised religion is not making very great progress. _ I aim afraid that it has in Home directions been weakened by the war; but still a. great many people have been seized with the sense of ’‘Rightness.’ the experience of the Salvation Army justifies that view.”