MARTYN01.TXT
Jul 05, 1996 06:03 PM
by Alan
MARTYN01.TXT
This printed document has come to light among the many papers
recently found in London, England, and temporarily available to
me in Bristol. Its inportance lies in its date and its location
(Australia) plus charges made against Wedgwood, together with
charges of "compounding a felony" by certain T.S. members. As
readers will see from the final line of the document, it was
clearly printed and circulated in America, from Washington D.C.,
yet it supports the claims and evidence gathered bt Tillet in
~The Elder Brother~ that CWL's activities continued when he went
to Australia. It is also the prelude to yet another crisis in
the T.S. - especially in England - over the connections with the
T.S., the Liberal Catholic Church, and Co-freemasonry, which
once again caused the loss of large numbers of members.
The document as printed follows:
-----------------------------------------------
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 T.S. lodge in the world, General Secretary of the
Australian Section T.S., Corresponding Secretary of the
Australian E.S. 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
Dear Mrs. Besant:
May 20th, 1921.
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 T.S. 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 E.S.
Corresponding Secretaryship, 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 favour 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 favoured and I suppose felt flattered.
For many years I had followed your E.S. 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 C.W L.'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 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 L.C.C. 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 me 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 E.S. and T.S. 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
E.S. 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 L.C. Church; and of all reliance on the
genuineness of reported initiations, discipleships, etc, in
which great numbers of people are supposed to have participated.
From 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 maintain
faith without reason; I had done the same so I can understand
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 uninitiated."
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 superphysical 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 E.S. 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 T.S. 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 of 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,
---------------------------
Copies of the above can be had on request from H.N. Stokes, 1007 Q
Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
---------------------------
Scanned and uploaded by Alan Bain, July 6th 1996
---------
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