The Salvation Army has issued an interesting Report on the
working of the Anti-Suicide Bureau started by General Booth on December 30th, 1906. The principles on which. the scheme was founded were .(1) inviolable secrecy, (2) free con- sultation and adviee, (3) no financial help guaranteed and in
all 1,125 men and 95 women applied to the London bureau. Most of the applicants belonged to the middle classes, and the majority of the women had had a good education. More than fifty per cent, of the men applicants attributed their distress to finandial embarrassment or poverty, eleven per cent, to drink, drugs, and disease, and twenty-one per cent. to accidents, sickness, and other misfortunes. Two-thirds of the women were suffering from melancholia caused by money worries and the like, and the remainder from drugs and drink. In regard to the method of treatment, General Booth observes that each applicant has had to be treated on his or her merits. Monetary help, though not guaranteed, has often been given, and in some cases with the best results. For the rest, sympathy, prayer, and encouragement have always been useful; while in the me of those whose trouble has been due to criminal trans- actions, the general rule has been to awaken the wrongdoer to the consciousness of wrong, and to encourage confession and restitution. General Booth summarises the results by stating that seventy-five per cent. of the applicants have been diverted from their intention, and helped "either out of, or through, or on to the top of, their circumstances "; and he claims that the bureau meets a great need and may be made a great success.
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