CHARLES LEADBEATER WAS AN UNDESIRABLE MAN IN AUSTRALIA

 

 

In the 1920s when allegations against Leadbeater, including a repeat of the 1906 American sex scandal, the 1912 Indian trial, and fresh investigations by the New South Wales Police, were receiving considerable local media attention, there were calls for Leadbeater to be declared an “undesirable alien” and thus expelled from Australia.

 

Leading those calls was the Sydney newspaper, the Truth, as shown in this article from February 28, 1926, p.11:

 

 

And below I transcribe the text of the article:

 

 

THE MENACE THAT IS LEADBEATER

 

Federal Government Should Have Prevented His Landing

 

EVENTS OF HIS PAST THAT CALL FOR ACTION

 

 

Charles Webster Leadbeater, “Bishop” of the pseudo “Liberal Catholic Church,” humbug, and self-confessed perverter of the morals of youth, is back in Australia.

 

Why was he allowed to land?

 

 

About two months ago he went to Adyar, near Madras, in India, with numerous Australian followers of his, to attend a Besantine Conference, when Annie Besant announced the coming of their “Messiah.”

 

Prior to that, when “Truth” let light in on Leadbeater's attempts to catch cash for his “Co-Masonic Order” and “Liberal Catholic Church,” this paper, in the interests of Australian boys and public morals, called upon the immigration authorities to refuse to allow him to land.

 

He is a menace, a polluter, who preaches a malicious soul and body destroying doctrine.

 

His reputation in four countries —America, England, India, and Australia— is one huge, black, festering blot. Yet he has been allowed to return lo this country, a land so far happily free from the mental diseases of the Old World for which Leadbeater stands and which Leadbeaterism means.

 

If his teachings had sway the Commonwealth would be filled with a race of gibbering degenerates within a couple of decades — heaven only knows how many boys have been ruined now. Yet this aged corrupter of morals goes free!

 

It shows how remarkably tolerant we are — and the Federal Government re fuses to face the facts.

 

In the Bruce Government's new Crimes Bill, aimed at unionists, there is not one clause that directly hits at people of the Leadbeater ilk.

 

There is something wrong, and “Truth” demands the reason why. This paper is in possession of facts strong enough to have him deported a dozen times over — we have shown time and again the type of man he is, and there has been hardly one part of his past that has not been dealt with in the columns of this paper.

 

 

 

MENACE AND DEGENERATE

 

And while there is one piece of paper in the presses and one drop of ink in the drums we will continue to denounce him for the menace and degenerate he is.

 

The Bruce Government spent thousands of pounds of the taxpayers' money in a futile attempt to deport Walsh and John son because of their alleged crimes against the industrial peace of the continent. Not one penny has been let out to throw a spanner in the Leadbeater wheel, nor on his recent return was one question asked of the infamous old man, a false teacher, a million times worse than either Walsh or Johnson. At least nothing can be said against their morals.

 

One needs to go back only to 1912 to the celebrated case of Narayaniah vs. Annie Besant, out of which Leadbeater came with anything but a clean reputation. In fact, it was spotted all over. Narayaniah sued Annie Besant for the custody of his two boys, Nityananda and Krishnamurti — the latter now boosted and advertised as the new “Messiah.”

 

Leadbeater was accused of perversion in the case of the boys, and Lakshman, a servant of Annie Besant, actually complained that he had seen something of a repulsive nature in which Leadbeater was implicated. And in his evidence Leadbeater himself admitted a teaching, the facts of which are absolutely unpublishable.

 

Some doctors condemned such advice, he said, and others were in favor of it. He had treated the matter as an absolutely physiological problem, and his opinions had not changed on the subject, but out of deference to the wishes of Mrs. Besant he had not repeated the advice since 1906.

 

  - “I have given such advice to young boys and young men,” he said.

 

 

 

A MAN NOT FIT

 

Mark that! Out of his own mouth shall he be Judged; and the Leadbeater of then cannot be any different to the Leadbeater of to-day. Surely the Federal Government is not blind to these facts!

 

Something must be done for the protection of boys and youths. Leadbeater is followed blindly by people who either refuse to realize the facts, or who must be blind to them.

 

“Was there any doctor who would give such advice?” counsel asked during the action. “Could a man capable of giving such advice be entrusted with the guardianship of the minors? Such a man stands self-condemned, and is an unsafe person to associate with. He has given such advice to persons unsolicited, and without appeal. Such a man is not fit to go near decent society.”

 

1912 to 1926 — have the years brought any change?

 

Impossible!

 

Again, read what Mr. Justice Bakewell said referring to Leadbeater:

 

“Mr. Leadbeater admitted in his evidence that he has held, and even now holds, opinions which I need only describe as certainly immoral, and such as to unfit him to be the tutor of boys, and, taken in conjunction with his professed power to detect the approach of impure thoughts, render him a highly dangerous associate for children. It is true that both he and defend ant declared that he has promised not to express or practice those opinions, but no father should be allowed to depend upon a promise of this kind.”

 

 

 

A CORRUPT FOLLOWER

 

Yet, there are Australian fathers, despite the learned judge's damning in dictment of this corrupt old man, who are allowing their boys to be taught by him.

 

Krishnamurti's brother, Nityananda, is dead from tuberculosis. Was the disease helped by any lessons that he received from Leadbeater?

 

Krishnamurti was more fortunate in lasting out — perhaps his constitution was the stronger, but, after all, Australians may not see him here as the “Messiah.” Leadbeater taught him to eschew all women — but he wants to be married contrary to all Leadbeater's teachings of celibacy.

 

That his pernicious teachings have borne fruit is shown by a case from Holland, an occurrence at a place called De Duinen, near Huizen.

 

In December last, a lay brother, named Kieft, was found guilty and sentenced to six months' imprisonment for offences that concerned some boys.

 

Kieft was in charge of choir boys, who sang at a “Liberal Catholic Church” at De Duinen, and, undoubtedly, his offences were due to the revolting teaching of the detestable school of Leadbeater, Wedgwood and others.

 

Thus has a vicious circle begun from the source that is Leadbeater. He teaches one, and that person be comes the tutor of another — even now Leadbeater may be letting loose among the youth of Australia boys with minds filled with his spurious, detestable, corrupt and horrible Ideas.

 

The matter is one that needs immediate attention. The immigration people delayed at the wharf when Leadbeater arrived at the head of his followers a week or so ago. But it is not too late to make him the subject of deportation, proceedings. Here is a man who is not a men ce industrially, but who is a fiend in human form — who is striking at the very foundations of morality.