Switzerland

From Sawiki

In no country outside Britain was the Salvation Army subjected to such bitter persecution as was encountered in Switzerland. From the moment that Kate Booth, the Founders eldest daughter, and her new chief of staff, Major Arthur Clibborn, opened fire in Geneva's Casino de St. Pierre on the 22nd of December 1882, a chill wind of disaster blew down the Rhone Valley.

At their third meeting in the Salle de la Reformation, ugly brawls broke out among the 3,000 strong audience. Kate applied to Geneva's Grand Council for police protection only to be met with hostility and outright refusal.

On the 2nd of February 1883 the Canton of Geneva proscribed the Salvation Army. It was now an offence to wear Army uniform on the streets or to conduct public meetings. Ten days later Kate was expelled from Geneva and she was forced to seek refuge in Berne. In the Canton of Neuchatel things were a little better. In September 1883, during Kate's brief absence in France, all public meetings of Salvationists were forbidden. On her return Kate tested the new law by leading a meeting of five hundred Salvationists in the Jura mountains. She was arrested and spent twelve days in Neuchatel's cold medieval jail before being acquitted at her trial.

Despite this on the 8th of October 1883 the Canton of Neuchatel expelled all foreign born Salvationists from their soil. These were the first rounds in a conflict which was to rage on for another six years. Soon Berne introduced the now familiar ban on Salvation Army meetings. On the 1st of November 1889 the State Council, without warning, closed all Salvation Army halls.

The following evening police broke violently into three Army halls in Geneva. Major Clibborn, dragged from his own hall, spent the night in jail. Not until March 1890 did the State Council of Geneva formally accede the Salvation Army's right to wear their uniforms in the street but a dark blue bonnet was still the signal for a shower of stones or spittle. It was left to a Swiss official of another century to write the ironic epilogue.

Guiseppi Lepori, minister of posts, Telegrams and Railways in 1958, was pondering designs for the year's new stamp issues. By that date the Salvation Army had over 400 officers operating 120 corps in 17 Cantons and was as highly esteemed as any church in the land. It was decided that one stamp among the new issues should commemorate the Army's 75th anniversary, and the design finally chosen depicted the once despised "Hallelujah Bonnet". The Swiss post office has commemorated the Salvation Army twice more, once in 1982 for the Centenary in Switzerland, and again in 1987 a charity stamp for Salvation Army Flood Relief.