ELECTING A GENERAL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 August 1939, Page 6

ELECTING A GENERAL.

(JALLED upon once more to elect a new general, this time in succession to General Evangeline Booth, the High Council of the Salvation Army is faced by a somewhat difficult and perplexing task. One of yesterday’s cablegrams mentioned that the meeting at Clapton which opened on Tuesday lasted for seven hours and then ■■'was adjourned. It was significantly recalled, 100, that the meeting at which the present general was elected extended over six jlays.

The composition of the High Council is determined by Act of Parliament. Ils membership consists of the chief of staff—that is to say. Ihe second in command of the Salvation Army—the active commissioners and all other officers holding territorial commands. The present council has fifty-six members. of nine nationalities, representing the Army’s activities in all parts of I lie world.

There is no explicit restriction of any kind on the selection of a new general. “lie or she,” according to a recent American writer, “might be elected from the ‘rank's’ or indeed, from outside the Army altogether. But it is extremely unlikely that anyone outside the High Council would be nominated and still more unlikely that any such person would receive on ballot, the absolute two-thirds majority necessary for election.”

Some of its members are of opinion that the Army should have younger leadership, but it counts perhaps for more that the problem of modifying the general's authority has not yet been solved and that the Army, in the words of the writer .just (Rioted, does not want to depose any more generals. Once elected, the general exercises an autocratic authority and it is suggested plausibly that rather than risk an intensification of the problem thus created, the High Ooune.il may again choose a candidate who has only a few years to serve. There are members of the present High Council who will not attain Hie retiring age for generals for another twenty years. The weight of opinion seems to be that these younger candidates are likely to be passed over.