Salvation Rift & Drift

Last week the High Council of the Salvation Army met at its headquarters in Sunbury on the Thames. England, and, as was expected, called upon ill and aged Gen. William Bramwell Booth to resign his command (TIME, Jan. 14).

Where. Many people were more interested in the locale of the Council meeting than in the meeting itself. The entry of the Salvationists brought a hubbub that disturbed the most placid of villages. Sunbury is situated 15 miles from London, three miles from the majestic delicacies and floral fanfare of Hampton Court. The sinuous Thames is a toy river near the toy village. In summertime Englishmen dawdle along the sunny stream in punts, bask all season long on houseboats and dismantled submarine chasers moored to the banks. But echoes of holiday laughter are stilled as they rise over the fields to Sunbury, where the sunbeams glint on a spikey little steeple and the footfalls of a few marketing villagers break a pall of quiet.

Sunbury Court, Salvationist headquarters, is a 22-acre estate surrounding a rambling manor house built with Georgian formalities of red brick with white stone pilasters and pediments. Elms, poplars and oaks veil a winding drive. The house has been residence, inn, club. As an inn it harbored Charles Dickens, whose quill scratched in utter silence as he worked on Oliver Twist. Other guests were Thackeray and Lord Macaulay.

The second scene of the Salvationist drama was far away in the village of Southwold on the east coast of England. There the delegates of the High Council waited on Gen. Bramwell Booth in his sick room opening on the drear North Sea.

How. The Sunbury Court building, be sides being the meeting place, was the headquarters of the opposition group, those who have wearied of Gen. Bramwell Booth's autocratic regime. Prominent among these, of course, was his malcontent sister, Evangeline Booth, Commander of the Army in America, possible successor to her brother.

Across the road from the estate gathered the pro-Bramwell ''standpat" contingent, headed by the General's wife and his daughter. Commissioner Catherine Booth. 1 They occupied a cottage secretively curtained with gauze. A direct telephone line to the General at Southwold was constantly alive with news.

The Council began with hymns, prayer, a reading from Colossians. They had heard that physicians had found Gen. Bramwell mentally unimpaired, likely to re-assume his duties in six months' time. Then be gan much rigmarole and palaver. The op position favored ousting Gen. Booth, favored a new autonomous government which should preclude such personal power as has characterized the Booth "dynasty." For this reason Sister Evangeline seemed little likely to succeed her brother. Though in discord with Brother Bramwell. she was yet a Booth, and the opposition felt that a change from Boothism would be felicitous. More appealing to them was Commission Edward John Higgins. Inter national Chief of Staff.

As the meeting progressed Commissioner Catherine began to dash back and forth between the opposition Court and the standpat cottage in a bright scarlet motor car. Undoubtedly she was relaying the progress of events to her father. Then came a letter from the absent General. As if to prove his cool sanity he said that he had appointed a commission to act for him in his absence and begged to be allowed time to recover.

This letter, with its overtones of autocracy, riled the opposition. An officer questioned its authenticity, based on his knowledge of the General's handwriting. Just then another officer rushed into the room bearing a message. At this point all the lights went out. In the darkness was hullabaloo, chaotic excitement. A Salvationist produced a flashlight. Peering at the message the Councilmen learned that a '"traitor" Salvationist had delivered Gen. Booth's letter into the hands of the press. Immediate steps were taken to prevent its publication, but hardly had the order been given when the Daily Mail, containing the letter, began to be hawked on the streets of London and the lanes of Sunbury.

The next day, cooler but more resolute of purpose, the opposition mustered 56 votes out of 63 (three-quarter vote necessary) asking the resignation of Gen. Booth. The request, affectionately phrased, suggested the General's retention of his title, honors and dignities.

To Southwold went six of the delegates. They found their leader in bed, black-gowned, his white hair a tousled aureole. He listened to the ceaseless plash of rain on the panes, heard the message of the delegates, promised an answer in three days.