SALVATION ARMY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3908, 16 February 1929, Page 3

SALVATION ARMY.

NEW GENERAL CHOSEN. •COMMISSIONER HIGGINS. London, February 13. The High Council of the 'Salvation Anny elected Commissioner Higgins General in place of General Bramwell Booth. The voting of the couricil was: Commissioner Higgins 43 votes; Cominancler Evangeline Booth, 17. THE NEW CHIEF A STRIKING PERSONALITY. Commissioner Edward John Higgins, C.8.E., chief of staff of the Salvation Army, has filled many appointments, including divisional work in Great Britain, second in commandl of the International Training Garrison, London, the chief secretaryship of the U.S.A., the assistant foreign secretaryship at internatonal headquarters, and ■command of the United Kingdom. He was appointed chief of staff in 191ffi He is a forceful and convincing speaker, and revels in a salvation fight; his public work being invariably rendered notable in the large number of persons seeking “salvation and holiness.” He was responsible to the General for the varied works carried through by the Salvation Army for the welfare of the troops during the Great War, and for his splendid labours during those eventful years received the C.B.E. He is widely travelled, and has intimate knpwledge of ‘the Salvation Army’s operations in many lands. In 1907 he accompanied the founder on his campaigns in Canada and Japan. Two years later, as special representative of international headquarters, he visited the Far East. In 1887 he married Captain Price. Four of their family are officers in the Salvation Army. “RIGHT MAN FOR POSITION.” “The Salvation Army in New Zealand is very pleased with Commissioner Higgins’s appointment to the supreme command —we have every, confidence in the decision the High Council has come to,” said Colonel D. A. Gunn, officer temporarily in charge of the Salvation Army forces in New Zealand, in an interview with a “Dominion” representative last night. “Commissioner Higgins is the right man for the position,” .Colonel Gunn proceeded. “In regard to the deposed leader, I can say that General Braniwell Booth has the undying affection and esteem of the whole Army here. We know he has not been responsible for the fight that has been going on. All the opposition to his retirement has come from the family. We have had inside knowledge that for a long time General Booth has been totally unfit to carry on, that he was totally unequal to the signing of documents. W|e know that he was badly advised. He ought to have retired. We have not been antagonistic to the old General, and he will always have our confidence and affection. There' will be great tributes paid to him, although his retirement was resisted by the family.”