VIEW ON MARRIAGE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5457, 5 August 1929, Page 3

VIEW ON MARRIAGE.

.THE SALVATION ARMY. OFFICER AND OUTSIDER. Through an inflexible rule of the Salvation Army, a pretty London nurse was in as strange a dilemma as can well be imagined when the last mail left.. She was deeply in love and anxious to marry. Her young fiancee was just as eager, but—he was a paid officer of the Salvation Army, and was prohibited from marrying any woman outside its ranks. The girl was thus faced with the choice of either joining the Salvation Army or losing the man she loved. The offeer in question called at headquarters and pleaded his case—but in vain. “She is a good and Christian woman, but he is an officer andshe is not in the ‘Army,’.so, of course, we could not grant permission,” said an official at head quarters. It was admitted that if the girl did not wish to join the “Army,” but wished to continue- to adhere to her own creed, the officer would have to resign. “But there have been few such cases,” said an official. “Almost always an officer marries within the ‘Army’ He or she needs a helpmate in the cause as well as a wife or a husband. They have the ‘Army’s’ work to consider and their own careers. “ Of course, an officer need not necessarily marry an officer. He or she can wed an ordinary soldier, just as a prospective bride can always enrol in the ‘Army.’ ” It was contended that few romances were blighted by the ‘ Army’s ’ repulations. An officer naturally moved almost exclusively in “Army” circles, and, for this reason, usually selected a Salvationist as a life partner. Members of the rank and file —or soldiers —need not marry a Salvationist, but usually did so. It was stated recently by General Higgins in connection with the marriage of his daughter, Captain Ruth Higgins, to Captain Harold A. Zeally that “Salvation Army officers are only allowed to marry those whom we think suitable for them.”