SALVATION ARMY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16914, 1 April 1929, Page 10

SALVATION ARMY

GENERAL’S RETIREMENT COUNCIL’S DISTASTEFUL DUTY PATHETIC SCENES DESCRIBED PERTH, March 19. Travelling on the .R.M.S. Oronsay, which readied Fremantle from London this morning, are four leaders of the Salvation Army who participated in the historic meeting of tho high council in Loudon in January, which resolved to relievo General Braimvell Booth, for physical reasons, of his leadership as general of the army. They are Commissioner J. Hay, of New Zealand, who presided at the sessions of the high, council, and Commissioners H. E. Whatmore, Australia, J. Hen-skins, India, and W. Palstra, Java. Commissioner Hay is en route to New Zealand, and his hrother commissioners will continue with the Oronsay to Melbourne, where Commissioner Horskins will settle.

When approached lor a statement, as i president of the high council. Commissioner Hay countered, "What, do you wont"me to talk about?" and when it was .suggested that thews was one subject of which he could speak with authority—the recent crisis in the Salvation Army —Commissioner Hay said, "We have returned- having done- our work in the name of Cod. and for the good of the army and of the world. The Salvation Army, a young body, had arrived at a juncture in its history when certain things had to be done. We have done those things carefully, tenderly, and. respectfully.' Commissioner Hay was asked as to'the stale of General Booth's health when he last saw him. "Bad, very had," was the reply. "I was the head of the deputation* which went to see him from the high council, and, personally, I am satisfied he will never again bo well enough to do one-tenth of the work required' of the leader of the Salvation Army, which entails the overseeing and control of 17,000 corps, 16,000 social institutions, 24.000 officers in the great missionary enterprises, and, 5000 officers doing social work. That, coupled with the extension of work always going on, requires all the energies of* a thoroughly efficient man physically. It was not a question of .whether we liked it or not; it was a matter of doing our duty, and in the discharge of duty personalities disappear. In a spirit of'fairness to the army and to General Booth himself, we deliberated for five days, and eventually, by an overwhelming 'majority of EfJ votes to 5.. it was decided that "he must retire. Legal power to come to that decision was unquestionably ours."

IMMENSE SERVICE Commissioner Hay continued by referring appreciatively lo tiie great; work done for the army by General Pi-oUi. ""I was chief secretary of the army in Britain for several years,'' he said, 'and I know as well as anyone the work he has done for the army and for humanitv. He has given immense service. Nevertheless, when there is a breakdown in the physical and nervous system, such as he has suffered, that work cannot be continued. In the army you cannot humor person or rank any more than you can in the- Church of England. Tn almost similar circumstances to those of General Booth, Dr. Davidson retired from the archbishopric of The high council's -decision establishes that the Salvation Army is in no way the property of any one family. The name of Booth will he honored amongst us, hut only as the beginning of a great movement- Some of us have had half a century of service- with the army. I have been a commissioner of the army for nearly 23 years." Commissioner Hay added that' the army authorities would treat General Booth in his retirement with every consideration. Though some of the decisions reached by the general n recent years may have been somewhat unwise', the consensus of opinion amongst members of the high council was that it was due to his impaired, health. When Commissioner Whatmore, who represented the army in Australia at the high council, was approached, he said ithad been stated that the high council met to depose General Booth. That was entirely incorrect. In a spirit of unbiassed inquiry the council entered upon its task, and after days of careful deliberation arrived at its coralusic/n. Every member of the council had the deepest sympathy for General Booth, and instead of at once, adjudicating him unfit—as they were entitled to—an effort was made to induce him to retire. "No words of mine, said Commissioner WSiatmore, "can adequately describe tire tenderness and pathos which flooded that particular session. Members oil the council had spent sleepless nights in prayer and weeping, and never in the lives of the 65 men and women assembled there will be erased from their memory the appeal and the scene associated with it when a commissioner. -\vitli tears streaming down his cheeks, and unable to speak coherently, pleaded with Mrs, Booth to induce her husband of his own will to relinquish the position he was so plainly no longer able to fill. There was scarcely a dry eye in the council chamber, but Mrs. Booth was not moved to action.'' Commissioner Whatmove added that not one member of the council who had voted in favor of General Booth's retirement imagined that such an appeal to a weak, Trail and worn man would be rejected. Some of the speeches delivered which were on record were masterpieces, of logic, passionate appeal and tender exhortation, worthy of widespread publicity, but which until otherwise decreed by circumstances, must remain historical documents for the guidance of generations vet unborn. They proved that men and women called upon to discharge a task as distasteful .is it was difficult rose to that duty without regard to personal consequences, and with determination to act considerately, wisely, and justly.