A TRIBUTE TO DR ANNE BESANT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22068, 26 September 1933, Page 13

A TRIBUTE TO DR ANNE BESANT

A special memorial service was held in the Theosophical Hall on Sunday evening in honour of Dr Annie Besant, late president of the society. Special addresses on the life of this great woman were given by Miss C. Dalziel and Mr J. M'Ewan. Annie, Besant had been wellnamed the "Servant of Humanity." She was born on October 1, 1847, in London. Taking truth as her watchword, she remained loyal to it throughout her long life with its storm and struggle in the early years, and peace towards her end; She was a firm believer in the brotherhood that knows no distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour. Being of a fiery religious temperament she questioned the orthodox Christianity of her girlhood a years, and later became an agnostic, a free-thinker, an atheist; gradually passing from one belief to another till she had found some of life's truths for herself. At the same time she was interested in social life and successfully carried through reforms in the working conditions in factories, mines, etc. For some years she collaborated with Charles Bradlaugh in petitioning Parliament for various reforms. He trained her in newspaper work. At this time she was rapidly becoming England's greatest orator. During the latter part of the nineteenth century people were very sceptical and materialistic, and conflicts between science and religion were very bitter. Taking these into consideration and also the difficulty in those days for a refined woman to the public, it can be realised the heroic stuff of which her nature was composed. As she could not'truthfully declare her belief in sonie of the sacraments of the Church, her husband ex-communicated her not only from the Church, but from her home, claiming his rights to have the children who, having later reached years of discretion, rejoined their mother. Nevertheless her early training in religious and -scientific work was indispensable to her in later life. In 1888, Dr Besant was given a remarkable book entitled "The Secret Doctrine" to review for the Daily Telegraph. In it she found many of the truths she had been seeking, and as this had been written by a Theosophist, it caused her first touch with Tbeosophy, of which she was destined to become the world-wide leader. She became the greatest modern expounder of this Divine wisdom and wrote 300 books, besides 25 pamphlets and smaller articles. Her leadership was due largely to the fact that she practised what she preached, and she did not preach any great truths of which she had not already possessed a living knowledge irrefutable by her own experience. To thousands she brought spiritual upliftment, and by thousands today she is recognised as one of the great religious teachers of the age. One of her contemporaries has summed her up thus: " A great leader, a great inspirer, a great world-server, a great seer, a great thinker, a loyal friend, and a brave fighter." In truth, warrior, hero, martyr, and saint." On Sunday evening, after a resolution expressing appreciation of her great work not only in the Theosophical Society, but in many other world-wide movements, had been moved, the audience stood in silent tribute while Mr J. K. Hartley played the "Funeral March" by Chopin. Among Di" Besant's later activities was her work in India and in the Boy Scout movement, of which she was appointed Chief Scout by Sir Baden-Powell, who also presented her with the decoration of the Silver Wolf. To most of the Indian people she was known by the title of " Mother," and such was the loyalty and devotion of those folk that, during her extensive travels in that vast country, she was always met by huge crowds on the railway platforms and garlanded according to the custom.