Addendum
The Australian Crisis.
The official account of the events in Australia last spring reached me too late to include in its proper place (ante, p. 4), but its importance as the latest phase of the Leadbeater scandal demands quotation of the principal details. Australia has been the scene of Mr. Leadbeater’s activities since the Madras lawsuits (ante, p. 39) made India too hot for him in 1913. Needless to say, the same scandals were repeated there, and finally brought about a crisis at the T. S. Convention last Easter in Sydney. Two of Mr. Leadbeater’s Indian “pupils,” Krishnamurti (see ante, p. 12) and Jinarajadasa, secured a vote of confidence in Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater which roused strong opposition. I quote from a long circular letter issued to the members by one of the opposition, Mr. J. M. Prentice, of Hobart, who is evidently a leading officer. It is dated May 28, 1922.
Mrs. Besant Refuses an Enquiry.
Soon after Convention Mrs. Besant arrived in Sydney [from India] a very worried and angry woman. At the Sydney Lodge she spoke on the lines of “Judge not that ye be not judged,” and made it thoroughly apparent that she was not in favour of anything in the nature of an Enquiry. During the Convention Leadbeater had issued a special statement to the E. S. T. which led to its expulsion from the Sydney Lodge building. It was this that had finally angered Mrs. Besant to boiling point.... She expressed a wish to meet the Lodge Committee and talk over the difficulties. There was a three-hour conference that led nowhere. I am told that she was helpless to a point of pathos. She denied everything as far as Leadbeater and Wedgwood [see ante, p. 62] were, concerned, and refused to consider anything in the nature of an Enquiry. She read from old files of the Theosophist how Leadbeater had been rehabilitated, but a member of the Executive challenged her with more recent happenings, to which she could only reply that she did “not believe them.”
A Terrific Press Criticism.
Two days later the Daily Telegraph came out with a tremendous attack on the “Liberal Catholic Church.” The result was terrific. At the members’ meeting that night feeling ran very high. The Telegraph had a reporter present and came out with six or seven columns under heavily leaded headlines. Moreover this information was disseminated to all the papers the Telegraph is correspondent for. The result is that irreparable damage has been done to Theosophy and the Society; although the ablest papers are willing to admit that there is still a minority genuinely fighting for sanity and cleanness in the T. S.
Government Enquiry Instituted.
The Government has now instituted an Enquiry, but so far I do not know the scope of its intention. I have been told by telegram that the Leadbeater boys have been examined or interrogated.... One of the latest developments was when Mr. A. B. Piddington, a leading barrister and K. C. of Sydney, resigned from the Presidency of the Public Questions Society of Sydney University rather than meet Mrs. Besant at a public address which she proposed to give to the members. He has addressed a scathing letter to the Telegraph, or rather released for publication his letter of resignation, which is a remarkable summing-up of the position.