Previously editor’s note
There has come into my possession, without restrictions as to its use, a
copy of a letter written to Mrs. Besant, May 20, 1921, by Mr. T.H. Martyn,
former General Secretary of the Australian Section, Theosophical Society,
former Corresponding Secretary of the Australian Esoteric Section, a member of
thirty years’ standing, who has done more than any other one person to build up
the Society in Australia. This is one of the most important and significant
documents which has yet appeared, bearing on the present crisis in the Theosophical
Society Copies of this letter can be obtained from this office by properly
accredited Theosophical Society members.
It is quite evident from the letter that the writer is addressing Mrs.
Besant in great spiritual perplexity over some damning facts concerning certain
Theosophical Society members of high standing. It appears among other things
that Wedgwood, Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, is wanted by the
police on charges of sodomy that his colleagues Bishop King, and Priests Farrar
and Clark, of the same church, were wanted on similar charges, and that Farrar
and Clark had to flee from England to escape arrest. It further appears that
Leadbeater, self-confessed teacher of immoral practices to boys prior to 1906,
was at that time wanted by the British police, and that much later he was a
guest in Martyn’s house in Sydney, but that having to leave temporarily he had
to be refused permission to return because (1917-1919) it transpired that naked
boys had been found in his bed and that other matters of a compromising nature
had occurred, of which he “touches merely the fringe.”
It appears also that Mrs. Besant ordered that Wedgwood must leave the Theosophical
Society and the Esoteric Section in order to protect the good name of the
Society, but that she cancelled this order on representation of Mr.
Jinarajadasa that this would reflect on the infallibility of Leadbeater, who
had proclaimed Wedgwood to be an initiate. The cable correspondence between
Mrs. Besant and Jinarajadasa on the subject is given. Mr. Martyn further states
that to his own know ledge Leadbeater is a sex pervert, and he wants to know
how the various matters referred to above are to be reconciled with the
protection and holding up as leaders and spiritual examples of the persons
mentioned. Mr. Martyn’s well known characteristic of conservatism and moderation
is well illustrated in the tone of the letter, which should be read by all who
are interested in maintaining the purity and good name of the Theosophical
Society.
(O.E. Library
Critic, vol, 11, No. 10, December 21, 1921, p.4)
Letter from Mr. T. H. Martyn to Mrs. Annie Besant
Note: the writer of the
following letter, Mr. T. H. Martyn, of Sydney, Australia, has been a member of
the Theosophical Society for thirty years, has recently been President of
Sydney Lodge, the largest Theosophical Society lodge in the world, General
Secretary of the Australian Section Theosophical Society, Corresponding
Secretary of the Australian Esoteric Section and a close associate of Mrs.
Besant and Mr. Leadbeater. No one person has done as much to build up the
Society in that part of the world.
« Private and Confidential
May 20th, 1921.
Dear Mrs. Besant:
Yours of April 4th asking me to
hand over the office of Corres. Sec. E. S. to Mr. Leadbeater duly received. I
have carried out your wishes and he is now in charge.
Though in your circular to
members giving as your reason for this change the high occult rank of Mr.
Leadbeater, in your letter to me you indicate that you make the change because
questions have arisen in which you and I are on opposite sides. Much as I dislike
putting you to any trouble I think I am entitled to ask you why you say this, for
I do not know of any differences. You have complained of none, indeed there has
been no correspondence (except on formal business) since we met in England and
then we seemed to be working and thinking on almost identical lines.
I wrote you on March 14th on some
difficulties of the Theosophical Society work here but you would hardly have
had that letter by April 4th or if you had it I cannot read into it any motive
for what you now do. Is it quite fair of you to arrive at such conclusions
condemning me on I presume statements of other persons without affording me an
opportunity to state my own case? That does not seem quite like the Mrs. Besant
I have pictured for the last 30 years. However I am glad enough to be relieved
of the Esoteric Section Corresponding Secretary ship, and I could not have held
it much longer without a candid exchange of views in any case.
Now I want to ask you first one
little favor and that is to try and help me in the greatest perplexity of my
life. For thirty years I have regarded you as my spiritual leader, my soul’s
friend and am grateful for all I have gathered by way of help from your
writings and your advice but only on one occasion so far as I remember have I
sought your counsel because of my own difficulties and that was at our first
interview in London in Sept. 1919. I thought then you would help me in my
perplexity and began to explain it to you, but you cut me short and we passed
on to general topics. Will you dear Mrs. Besant now read with patient sympathy
what I have to say— it is all true as to fact— and then see if you can help me
to find a solution to my particular problem. You have taught me to endeavor to seek
truth, to think truth and to live truth and now after long years of earnest
effort its logic pursues me. I cannot evade it.
This is what I want to tell you. In
1906 I was in London fighting your cause and Leadbeater’s police proceedings
against the latter were seriously threatened. One of his boys in desperate
trouble urged me to try and prevent them being proceeded with and admitting
that the only evidence he could give confirmed Leadbeater’s immoral practices. The
police proceedings did not eventuate. I went away to Africa soon after and on
returning I tried to forget what this confession involved, to explain it away:
and succeeded. In 1914 Leadbeater came to live with us in Sydney. I took him at
his own valuation and yours, regarding him as an Arhat; permitted myself to come
sympathetically under his influence and gladly made effective all his plans. As
time went on I certainly got many little shocks. He would for instance explain
in private that you were deluded about your Indian work, and the belief that it
was at the wish of the Hierarchy that you should work for Home Rule. He did not
hesitate to hint that your actions in India and advice to Indians were disloyal
to the Empire. Mrs. Martyn could confirm this and many other things said in
private, that puzzled us, though always everything said in public was loyal and
flattering to you.
Meanwhile I was personally
favored and I suppose felt flattered. For many years I had followed your Esoteric
Section training conscientiously and results had followed. When you gave concrete
expression to my experiences I tried to live up to a still higher standard, but
later on the casual way in which these overnight ceremonies were regarded after
the first occasion or two became very marked. As an instance on a certain date
in July 1917 five of us were told we had taken various initiations. No one
remembered anything in the morning —, some had hardly slept feeling rather
excited. I do not remember at any time anyone remembering any real experience
or anything of what happened on any of these occasions. All the same I took all
that quite seriously. By this time (1917) Mrs. Martyn had become intensely
unhappy about C. W. L. in the house. She had seen naked boys in his bed and
other facts had come to her knowledge. I refused to sympathize with her views
and for my sake she kept her peace and I held things together.
Later (1918-19) scarlet fever in
the house caused Leadbeater and his boys to move out temporarily and all my
persuasions were insufficient to induce Mrs. Martyn to have him back again. She
point-blank refused —though again in consideration for my own feelings— she
told me nothing of what she knew. I only learned that on my return from
America, 1919-20.
In 1919 I went to America. Young
Van Hook was in New York. He talked freely of Charles Webster Leadbeater’s
immorality and about faking the “lives” of people. In your reviews of some
letters sent you by Raja which reached him from America things which Van Hook
says about the “lives” you credit me with —that by the way. Now here is the evidence
of two Leadbeater boys (my 1906 experience— I can give you the name if you want
it — and young Van Hook) both subsequent to the 1906 inquiry and subsequent both
to the confessions of all the American boys and to C.W.L.’s admissions at the enquiry
of 1906. I have put these pieces of evidences together and add to them the compromising
facts of life in my house (I am only touching the fringe of this in this
letter) and find staring me in the face the conclusion that Leadbeater is a sex
pervert, his mania taking a particular form which I have— though only lately— discovered,
is a form well known and quite common in the annals of sex-criminology. There
are some I know who think C. W. L. may have brought over old sex weaknesses and
still be chosen by the Masters to do certain work for them. I have found
comfort in the possibility up to the time of my last Interview with you in
London.
This brings me to 1919 and my visit
to London. A week before you sent for me and gave me your message in October 1919
I called on Mrs. St. John. She was in great trouble because the police were taking
action (so she told me) against four Liberal Catholic Church priests. Wedgwood,
King, Farrar and Clark. She wanted to warn Wedgwood in Australia and did not
know how to without incriminating herself by compounding a felony. Farrar she
told me she had got out of the country and she was sure the police would not
find him. King had decided to remain in London and see it out as Farrar was out
of the way etc. Mrs. St. John told me that though Wedgwood seemed to be compromised
she herself did not believe him to be guilty of the charges.
Of course while in London I heard
about charges of sodomy with boys being made against Wedgwood (by Major Adams
and others) and reports about him had also reached me from Sydney, but what
Mrs. St. John told me came as a complete surprise. A week later Graham Pole
sent ms word to say you wished to see me urgently and I called. You then told
me that you wished to communicate with Wedgwood in Sydney but by so doing
directly you would be compounding a felony and you gave me the message for Raja
that Wedgwood must leave the Esoteric Section and the Theosophical Society,
etc. You explained that he had seriously compromised himself and you felt it
your duty to protect the good name of the Society. I happened to think of an
Esoteric Section talk you had given on a previous Sunday about black magic and
sexual excess and asked you if you were referring to Wedgwood’s case in that talk
and you said yes, that Krishna, who was very intuitive at times had in a
comment suggested the explanation. Now you will see that this went much further
than implying that Wedgwood had compromised himself— a good man may do that and
be innocent of evil. It meant to me that on your own evidence and that of
Krishna, Wedgwood was guilty of sex depravity. Then there cropped up the matter
of Wedgwood’s initiation. You told me he was not an initiate. I could not be
surprised at that, naturally, if the other was true how could he be?
The statement prompted me to
wonder to what extent you confirmed or otherwise all the many other
declarations of Leadbeater about various other people being disciples,
initiates etc. My notes (written down immediately after I left you) remind me
that I asked you what I was to do with regard to them and of your reply.
After my interview with you I left
London immediately for Australia via America, and for a couple of months was
busy readjusting my own ideas about things as well as I could. I found comfort
in certain help which I believed my Master (M) gave me. I understood I was to
do all I could to support you in a difficult crisis. To me you had committed a
distinct breach by discarding blind subservience to Leadbeater’s every word. It
was easy for me to do this where in view of what I am telling you it would be
impossible to accept Leadbeater’s infallibility in all things. In America after
leaving you certain people came to me and told me they had heard that the truth
about Wedgwood was coming out at last and explained that he had in London admitted
his trouble to one of them (or both I am not sure); that great efforts were
made to help him overcome it; that things went on well for a time, but that
later on he dropped back again into his evil ways. I can give you names if you
want them. When I reached Sydney Raja accepted the message with evident
reluctance, and rather foolishly I repeated bits of your conversation in
addition to the directions. The central point with Raja became your denial of
Wedgwood’s initiation and I soon saw that the breakdown of Wedgwood involved to
him nothing short of the collapse of Leadbeater as an Arhat; of the divine
authority of the Liberal Catholic Church; and of all reliance on the
genuineness of reported initiations, discipleships, etc, in which great numbers
of people are supposed to have participated. Prom Raja's viewpoint this must
not be permitted at any cost for the sake of the peace of mind of members and
of the cause in general and he just became the politician pure and simple
scheming to maintain what to me was —on the evidence available— a falsehood; he
showed no desire at all to find the truth and follow it. I may have been a
little unfair in this conclusion because I afterwards found that Raja is an echo
of C.W.L. and that he takes his occultism directly from what the latter says
without question. For some time until I could no longer stand his attitude up
to a certain point.
Then followed the cable to you
from Raja explaining what your statement —that Wedgwood was not an
initiate—involved. He made no reference in the message to the immorality — that
was apparently unimportant and you replied accepting Leadbeater's statement
about the initiation as decisive and cancelled your instructions. But I will repeat
the cables to make this point clear.
Sydney Dec. 17. 1919. to Besant,
Adyar.
“Martyn reports you said Wedgwood not initiate. Leadbeater asserts you
were present at initiation. Am most anxious members sake there should be no
fundamental divergence between you and him on such important occult matter
since at same time. . . . and . . . . took second . . . . and . . . . first. Do
you mean that since you have no recollection you cannot assert Wedgwood
initiate but do not wish to be quoted as saying that he is positively initiated.”
Dec. 22, 20. Bombay.
“Brother’s statement enough accept fact, cancel message sent.”
Before Raja’s cable was sent I
had interviewed Leadbeater alone. He wanted to hear all he could. I told him
about the evidence thrust on me in America about Wedgwood having confessed and
he said “well we had better get rid of him then.” I have often since remembered
this incident. If Leadbeater knew Wedgwood to be innocent because he was an
initiate why should he have said that?
I am telling you the truth
without any exaggeration and if this or any other statement is denied to you by
others involved as it might well be that cannot affect my knowledge of its
truth.
You told me in 1913 at Adyar
about the Triangle. C. W. L. has never so far as I know made any reference to
this in private or public. You also told me then that you knew C. W. L. to be a
very high initiate. Your statement then __ always remembered by me— has done
much to keep me constant when things have happened in my house that I could not
understand. Leadbeater has frequently stated that you permanently cut yourself
off from physical brain intercourse with the Masters when you took up the
Indian work. Raja has to some extent confirmed this but at our Convention last
Easter Leadbeater stated that you and he exchanged notes by physical plane
means when anything happened on the other planes affecting the work. He stated
then that when the directions about starting a church were given you sent him
word and he you, the communications crossing one another or to use his precise
words “I sent her (A.B.) that original communication about the Three
Activities; but she at the same time took down the points and sent them to me. It
was not done on my remembrance at all but on a careful combination of the two.”
(Convention Number T. in A. May 1921, page 56).
Here is a contradiction of the
other statement that you had broken the super physical line of communication
and the real facts if known might make things a little easier to understand. As
it is I have been forced by mere pressure of circumstances, to certain
conclusions particularly in view of your repudiating your own and Krishna’s
judgment about Wedgwood merely because Leadbeater stated he was initiated in
July 1917.
1.
That Leadbeater is
not always reliable.
2.
That you have been
relying upon C. W. L. as sole intermediary between the Hierarchy and yourself —
for many years.
3.
That you have not
been kept fully acquainted by Leadbeater with what the Hierarchy is doing.
4.
That C. W. L's word
is final, and his seership infallible to you.
This last is Raja’s attitude I
know. I never could however make it mine and have always maintained my faith by
regarding you as independently aware of everything that the Masters did in
connection with the Esoteric Section etc. Like many of the older members I have
known how you and others for quite a long time regarded Chakravarti as a Master
in the flesh and later had to repudiate him when certain facts indicate the mistake.
Naturally one must leave a loophole in one’s consciousness for mistakes of this
kind being made and that mistake has made no difference to my attitude to you,
nor to my appreciation of the splendid gifts you have lavished upon the cause
you serve; but all the same the incident has a bearing in the case of
Leadbeater.
Will you tell me where I have
gone wrong —from your point of view. I can with least difficulty regard the
solution —already mentioned— that sexual irregularity is a matter of the
personality and does not prevent a person being used by the Masters even as
Their sole agent. That explanation would leave room for the acceptance of both
C.W.L. and Wedgwood. The order regarding the church I should regard seriously
if you independently received it but actually I have never resisted that in any
way, what I have struggled against is the dumping on the Theosophical Society
of a host of priests designated by such addresses as “Father” etc. to the
bewilderment of people in and outside our non-sectarian movement. I can see
that an “Order” might have been genuinely given which did not necessarily
involve a foolish way of carrying it out. I really do want to maintain an open
mind on this and every subject (likewise an eager intellect and unveiled
spiritual perception) and I am sure you can help me if you will. Will you?
I really do not want to have to
think of Leadbeater and Wedgwood as monsters veiling their illicit practices
under the cloak of humanitarian interests and acting with the clever ingenuity
and cunning sometimes met with in such cases. That is the viewpoint of lots of
people however. The last thing I want is to have to join such critics and I
will gladly catch at any straw which offers a reasonable explanation of the
facts on other lines.
Finally please my dear friend do
not be so unjust to me as to believe I want to make trouble between you and
Leadbeater, you hint at something of this sort in your Disciple talk. I have no
grudge against Leadbeater, nor against Wedgwood, nor against Raja, nor against
any person mentioned in this letter, on the other hand I want to believe in
them all if facts will permit me. We have been told over and over again that
occultism is common sense and that Buddha taught his disciples to believe
nothing because He said it. My difficulties summed up seem to arise because I
am asked to put all evidence and all reason on one side and believe because
someone does say it. So I leave it to you in your wisdom to show me the way out
o f the tangle and I will be everlastingly grateful to you if you can. It is
not easy to go back on the grooves formed by thirty years of thinking and
working.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours very sincerely. »
(O.E. Library
Critic, vol, 11, No. 11, January 4, 1922, p.4-8)
OBSERVATIONS
If Mr. Martyn had study true Theosophy, then he would have realized that
Leadbeater was a big charlatan and that Annie Besant had allowed herself to be
completely manipulated by him.
And the proof is that Annie Besant not only did not listen to Mr.
Martyn's arguments, but she also removed him from his post as Secretary of the
Esoteric Section in Australia to put Leadbeater in his place.
Which shows how fanatical Annie Besant was, for she shunned anyone who
said the slightest negative thing about Leadbeater, not caring that person had
done more than any other member to expand the Theosophical Society in
Australia, worked hard to this organization for 30 years and have carried out a
thorough investigation with witnesses and evidence.
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