SALVATIONIST LEADER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 371, 4 June 1928, Page 14

SALVATIONIST LEADER

ALWAYS ON THE MOVE COMMISSIONER FOR CONGRESS Commissioner W. H. Mapp, who was the first Salvation Army Commissioner to go to Russia after the revolution, arrived in Auckland today by the Aorangi from Sydney. He will leave Auckland this evening for Wellington to attend the National Congress of the Army. The Commissioner found time this afternoon, before leaving for the South, to visit the Newton group of the Army, and participate in a fraternal gathering. He has promised to deliver a public lecture in Auckland on his return from Wellington. The Commissioner and Major Frank Taylor, who is accompanying him on the tour, will leave from that port for San Francisco, en route to England, next month. There was a large assembly of Salvation Army officers at Prince’s Wharf this morning as the Aorangi drew in.

Commissioner Mapp is international chief secretary for the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South West and East Africa, and for the West Indies. Consequently, he is something of a globe-trotter. He spoke enthusiastically to-day of Australia, and of the Army’s progressive activities there. The Commissioner also remarked that he was much looking forward to his stay in New Zealand. The brief glimpse he obtained of Auckland when he passed through recently on his way to Sydney was hardly sufficient. Constantly on the move, for it is part of the Commissioner’s duty to visit one or more of the countries under his charge, he makes a fresh trip every year. He has served the Army for over 40 years, and originally commenced as a soldier in the organisation.

When in Russia he had a long interview with Trotsky, and found him exceedingly bitter. The Russian exdictator, on that occasion, showed great animosity against the British.