SALVATION ARMY CHIEF'S STARK WARNING

THE Scot entrusted with the future of the Salvation Army in Britain returned
to his home town of Paisley at the weekend and issued a warning to parents
across the world about the dangers of drugs.

Commissioner Alex Hughes, who left the town in 1959 at the age of 17, was
appointed the Territorial Commander of the Church in the United Kingdom last
month and he has already formed strong opinions on the challenge that lies
ahead.

Mr Hughes and his wife, Ingeborg, spent the past 30 years working in South
America, but yesterday he said that his work in the community had scarcely
prepared him for the social problems prevalent in Britain.

He said: "When I first worked in Bolivia and Peru, they were drug-producing
countries but the number of people taking them was not such a problem. More
recently that has spread even there."

Mr Hughes feels that the decline of the traditional family is a symptom of a
less spiritual society and that its most devastating impact is seen in the
drugs culture that has claimed at least 99 lives this year in Strathclyde alone.

He said: "Paisley has changed, and society has changed, since I was last
here but the saddest change is the extent of the drugs problem which affects
so many lives.

"Parents will have to communicate with their kids, or they'll be dead before
they know it."

Mr Hughes believes that his Church, whose motto is "with heart to God and
hand to man" has already adapted to a more challenging secular role.

While the traditional image of the army is of brass bands playing in city
streets, now younger members travel to Glastonbury and other rock festivals
to speak to their peers.

He said: "We know that the way we worked before will not work now. It is a
different age. Our young people reach out to their peers at many events:
they have to go where other young people are."