CHARITIES AND ALLEGED SWEATING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12852, 28 April 1905, Page 6

CHARITIES AND ALLEGED SWEATING.

A -REPLY TO THE DEMOCRATS.

[BY TELEGKAI'H. —OWN' CORRESPONDENT.]

Chrisxchdsch, Thursday. With reference to the cable message to the effect that the Social Democratic Conference at London accused the Salvationists and 1 the Church Army of a gigantic system of sweating, Commissioner Nicol, of the Salvation Army,-told a Times reporter that the allegations were a sort of annual resolution which the Conference passed. Without making any invidious insinuations, he might say that "political wing" in England did' not carry sufficient weight, if he dared say so, to warrant the Army entering into a. discussion. There was no comparison between the.position of that body in England and the position of similar bodies in the colonies. He did not belittle the oiganisatidn, as he recognised that the Army itself had had small beginnings, but, as he had said, there was nothing in the table message to Warrant the Army entering into the discussion. The charge made was an old one, and its seriousness depended upon what was meant by " sweating." m it wa.i intended to mean that the officers of the Army- were sweaters for the sake of personal aggrandisement, that Arge could not -{jo sustained, as the General and all his officers scarcely derived what would be termed in this country t living wage lor '.their labour and sacrifices. If it was meant that they sweated the labourers, that also could not be sustained. In the colonies which the Army had established ill lie United Kingdom it had delivered men from tin-. |ioveil.v linn of life, and had placed ilipin in v position where they could, by means of a gradual advance, raise themselves to an independent and profit place in society.'" The principal colony in England ]i»il never been self-supporting* air! he lid not think that it avei would be. The great proportion of the colonists were physically unlit lot the fit si half of their time to earn suflicirnt to recoup the Army for iheir maintenance.