General Meetings in Switzerland and Great Britain
By L. R. Conradi
As God's work rapidly extends throughout the European Division, one is so busy that he can hardly keep up with the reports. After our blessed meeting in Friedensau, I went immediately to Aubonne, French Switzerland, near Lake Geneva. About twenty-eight years have passed since the first conference in Switzerland was organized. We now have two conferences there, a French, or Roman-Swiss, and a German-Swiss, each having nearly 600 members. Our French brethren had secured a good camp-ground, and forty-five delegates were present. A good spirit was felt throughout the meeting. Brother E. R. Palmer's work among the canvassers was much appreciated. When we considered the needs of our mission work in the fields beyond, and mentioned the fact that our brethren in the States were trying to raise their mission gifts from ten cents to fifteen cents a week, the brethren asked how much was missing to raise theirs for last year to ten cents a week. Upon its being ascertained that about 4,000 francs ($772) were still lacking, 4,225 francs ($815.43) were subscribed in a little while. It must be remembered that our brethren in Europe do not obtain such high wages as are paid in the States. The Swiss watch-making trade has also suffered more or less of late years through the great foreign competition. The conference expressed its thanks to Brother J. Vuilleumier for the service which he has rendered. Elder P. Steiner, who had been educated in our school in London, and who had gained a good experience in various parts of the French field, was placed in charge of the Latin Union school. All were happy to learn that the sanitarium, since the addition of the new building, is well filled. The Sabbath was an especially good day, and Brother C. Guenin was ordained to the ministry. Elder H. H. Dexter was unanimously reelected president, and we have every reason to hope that the present year will witness still greater growth in the field. From August 1 until September 4 I attended five meetings in the British Union. Throughout these meetings the Lord came near to his people by his blessings, and everywhere the work showed advancement and spiritual growth. Though these meetings came right in the time when there were occurring the greatest struggles between capital and labor that England ever witnessed, yet the Lord seemed in an especially manner to guide in the arrangements. We began in North England, and by the time the strikes became more serious there, we were either in Scotland or in Ireland. When we reached Wales and London again, the strike had just abated in these quarters. In Dublin, however, we were eye-witnesses of some of the riots. By the Lord's grace a little company of faithful believers has been raised up in this stronghold of Catholicism, and on our way from Belfast to Wales we arranged for a meeting with this company. When we reached the city, we found some of the large shop-windows already broken, and the police and the special constables massed in the principal quarters of the city. On the way to our lodgings, only a few blocks from the very center of the city, we had to pass through a great mob, a strike of the newsboys being on. As we were going by, the mob burst into the shops on either side of the street, and women and children rushed into the broken windows, and secured everything they could lay their hands on. By the time the police came, the shop-windows were cleaned out. Until a long time after midnight we could hear the rioting going on in the streets, and the next day many broken and empty shop-windows testified to the fierceness of the riot. Passing Llanelly in Wales, we saw the burned and wrecked cars, and the soldiers in tents guarding the place. As to the help for all these meetings, Elders Palmer, and W. J. Fitzgerald, Prof. H. C. Lacey, and the writer were present. The North England Conference was held in Derby. The attendance was good, nearly seventy delegates being present. Last year they had an addition of 120 members, bringing their total membership to 714. As Elder S. G. Haughey had labored faithfully so many years in the northern field, he, with Elder W. A. Shafer of this conference, was transferred to the South England Conference. Elder W. H. Meredith, of the South England Conference, was chosen unanimously as president, and Elder J. J. Nethery, who had been associated with him in the south, was transferred to the north. The fifty pounds needed for a gospel tent were quickly raised. This conference also readily adopted the five-per-cent sustentation plan, for the support of the aged. The Scotch meeting was held in a hall at Kirkcaldy. This was the largest meeting we ever held in Scotland. This conference had for some time been without a local president, and Elder A. E. Bacon was unanimously chosen to that office. About $140 was raised for a new gospel tent. All our people took a deep interest in our mission work, and four dear souls were buried with their Lord in baptism during the meeting. From here we proceeded to Belfast, Ireland. Though this was not the annual meeting, yet we had a very good representation for our people, who seemed to enjoy the services held with them. While the work is advancing in all these fields, yet the great crying need is more13successful laborers, to reach the millions who have not heard the message. The Welsh Conference meeting was held in the fine city of Swansea. In spite of the labor crisis, some 170 of our people had gathered from different parts of Wales. An excellent spirit prevailed. In view of the financial difficulties, we questioned whether we should call for more than $250 for a tent fund. But in a short time more than $300 was raised. Elder H. E. Armstrong was again unanimously chosen president for the coming year. The last conference of the union was held in Balham, S. W., London. Especially during the Sabbath we had a large attendance. This conference reported 56 members net gain during the past year, also an increase in tithes and offerings. The Sabbath-school collection amounted to over $45 for missions. The South England Conference unanimously elected Elder Haughey as president for the coming year. Important changes also took place with regard to the field. In order to facilitate the work in the South England Conference, which heretofore had nearly half the population of England, it ceded five counties to the North England Conference, and the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Hereford, and London north of the Thames, to the British Union Conference to form a union district. The new union district will include the larger portion of London, and Watford where our chief institutions are, having altogether a population of 5,000,000. The South England Conference will still retain something like 9,000,000 people. By these additions, the North England Conference will have a population of nearly 20,000,000, and the idea is that in the near future this conference will also be divided, to form a Middle England and a North England Conference. As Wales is the smallest of the British Union fields in population, and adjoining English counties supply the railway facilities between northern and southern Wales, these counties, Hereford and Shropshire, were ceded by North England to the Welsh Conference. Brother J. D. Gillatt, who had labored very successfully during the last few years, was ordained to the gospel ministry. The British Union, with a population of over 45,000,000, has only fifty gospel workers, or one to a million. During the first six months of this year they have taken in 197 members, and the membership has increased to 2,034; while the tithe for the two quarters was $14,200, or an average of about $14 a member per annum. Its Sabbath-school and first-day offerings during the same period were about $1,500. From the very fact that in general mission work Great Britain as a nation does as much as the United States, though it has only half the population, we can readily see the importance not only of developing all the native workers we possibly can here, but also of supplying from elsewhere some bright young men for work in this union.