Retiring General

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

Retiring General

London’s Tribute to Evangeline Booth

LONDON, February 24. QPPOSITE the towering structure of the rebuilt Bank of England in Princes Street, iu tlie heart of the City of London, is the magnificent Grocers’ Hall. Here this week a luncheon was given to General Evangeline Booth, who retires from the position of head of that great international organization, the Salvation Army, in October

The Grocers’ Company, which sprang from the Ancient Guild of Pepperers in 1345, is one of those rich and charitable livery companies known to the ordinary Londoner for the extent o£ their charities and endowments (the grocers, among other things, founded the famous public school at Oundle and has done much to finance the London Hospital)—and for the splendour of their banquets.

This luncheon was something out of the ordinary. It was a Salvation Army function, and bonneted “lassies

and “officers” were conspicuous iu their familiar uniforms. Conspicuous by their absence were the drinks am. smokes of the usual city lunch. Plates of apples and chocolates on the tables were probably a feature unique tor such affairs. Evangeline Booth, fourth daughter of William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army, is the only woman to be made a "general. She wore her general’s uniform (the only one in tlie Salvation Army which has gold braid on it), and as she stood at the top of the stairs and received, she looked really remarkably less than her 73 years. Among tlie people who had come to pav her tribute were the Lord Mayor of London (Sir Frank Bo water), who took the chair; the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Simon). Mr. K. B. Bennett (ex-Prime Minister ot Canada), the Marquess of Wiliingdoii, the Bishop of London and Lords Saiikev and Samuel. After the Lord Mayor had read out a speech extolling General Bootes work, she herself spoke for some time. She spoke.of the. work of her famous father and of the Army (“helping the man who is down to help himself to get up”), and. at the end, she made a brief -reference to the international situation.

Preparedness Urged

CHE urged preparedness. "Burglars came to my street,” she said. ‘So I got two big dogs.” But she also referred to the longing for peace which she had found in the hearts of all kinds of people in all sorts of lands she has visited—and, since she was made General in 1934, she has travelled more than 250.000 miles, twice round the world, on Salvation Army affairs—and shq believed that the time would come when intelligent and religious men would regard war as a “barbaric irrationalism.’ Sir John Simon, looking extremely fit in spite of a Chancellors mighty responsibilities these days, spoke warmly of General Booth’s'achievements, alluded to her “very remarkable and deeply-moving address.” Both he and Lord Willingdon, who spoke after him, referred to the work of the Salvation Army among the criminal tribes in India, proof of which both had seen on the spot. Lord WillIngdon declared that throughout ins administrative career he had received “wonderful help” from the Salvation Army—specially, he said, in India ami In Canada.