THE SALVATION ARMY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20906, 21 December 1929, Page 16

THE SALVATION ARMY.

TROUBLES OF THE BOOTH ; FAMILY. ' ■ MRS BOOTH’S PAMPHLET. MRS BOOTH HELLBEEG’S r.Am / (FBOM Odß Own COEKEfIPOHBENT.) LONDON, November 7. Mrs BramweU' Booth has issued a - pamphlet giving an account of the events which led up to the deposition of her" husband from the leadership of the Salvation -Army. „It is said that Mrs * Booth agreed that she would not engage in publicity until legal questions in connection with the leadership succession had been settled, on the understanding - that there should be no comment from the other side. ‘ <■ She diecoy&fed, however,: that Com- + missioner Hay, chairman" of the High Council which'deposed General Bramwell Booth, waa circulating at 1 meetings in’ New Zealand a pamphlet in which he gave- ap ex parte explanation of the" reasons for calling together the High . Council. . - . - Mrs Bramwell Booth did not issue her v pamphlet until after General Higgins’s' return from .Canada, and no steps bed been taken to get it circulated until the statements General Higgins gave to the press were published,. early .last week.* -■ ; /‘For some time,” she says, iu the ‘ pamphlet, "the General had borne heavy anxieties on account of Ms sister. Commander Eva Booth (chief of the Army in the United States), who constantly resented his. authority.” “ ■?. Other statements in the pamphlet ; are;—* • • In 1822 and 1923. American newspapers _ attacked the General with great bitterness, and Commander Eva iwoe atxy contradictions of* these false apd misleading statements. . Mrs_ Bramwell Booth speaks of a ' campaign of calumny behind the General s back, emanating from a Sllvghonifit ioupee in witb its chief representative in this coun.-: try a man who had been " near to the General’s heart.” She says that the fact that Ms own relatives were attacking him preyed on his mind to much that it led to , his breakdown in health. "UTTERLY ALONE.” * After her husband’s illness, she g6es s®* g«atest shock was to discover that the General’s right-hand man was from his cooperation, ’ The first definite indication of' this ' wa “ a* message was drawn up for staff officers calling on them to. stand true to the Amy, which Commissioner BiggiM agreed to join in aigning. He then decided that he would not astociate his name with Mrs Bramwell noptn s in the message.* / 1 ,7“ « mt, 3 r perplexed and utterly alone, she says. "I was unable to speak to the general, and bereft of advice from the chief of the staff, with whom I had hitherto discussed sverything. The reason for that change of waa » still, a mystery to . Bramwell Booth tells of the meeting of the deputation from. the Hieh Council with the stricken general, and now, 12 days later, after the general had been advised by counsel to seek the courts’ ruling on the Amy constitution. Commissioner Higgins wrote: “You have alienated the sympathy which was felt for you.” TREATMENT OF THE FAMILY. The Sunday Referee publishes a letter over the signature of Florence E. Booth. In this the writer says her family particularly regret the unjustifiable use of the word "vendetta” in referent* to their relations with, otber members of * the Army. “If a small section of his officers,” the letter proceeds, “could act towards my beloved husband in the manner they did when ho lay dying, one cannot won-. der that some of them should be anxious to justify their action by persecuting his children and others who have openly sympathised with them. “But, as I am sure you know, while their remains the smallest possibility of continuing in the service of Christ in the Salvation Army, to which their father and grandfather devoted their lives and to which, by the blessing of God, they also have whole-heartedly consecrated themselves, my sons and daughters are determined to follow the ex- • ample set* them by their father and to suffer in silence. “ Time is iu their favour, and there will surely be in years to come increasing opportunities for them to maintain the high traditions of service to the people and to the Salvation Amy bequeathed to them by their fathers. “Speaking, if I may, for myself, it is difficult to. believe after nearly 50 yean of service that the ungenerous poljcv, now being pursued, of denying me any opportunities on the Amy platform or of any kind of responsible work, can continue. But I alfco am content to abide God's time. A PATHETIC FIGURE. “One further personal word I must add. I deeply grieve that I have failed in my effort to induce General Higgins to mitigate his treatment of my husband’s widowed sister. Commissioner Lucy Booth-Hellberg. The breaking up of her home, the separation from her only child, the going forth at the age of (59 alone to a strange land, the language of whose people she does not speak, make her the most pathetic figure on the Salvation Amy jfield to-day, and on her behalf I feel justified in lifting up my ’ voice in strongest protest.”