31 AUGUST 1934, Page 6

The selection of General Higgins' successor as head of the

Salvation Army has not been made, as I write. There is, therefore, nothing to be said about the High Council's decision. But there is something to be said about the elaboration of secrecy with which the Council's meeting has been invested. The locked gates, the police and other guards, the posed photographs of visitors being repelled from closed doors, all introduce a note of melodrama which does not good but harm to the Army's prestige. The High Council is not the College of Cardinals, and there is nothing to be said for behaving as if it were. * * * *