“Great White Chief”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 416, 26 July 1928, Page 11

“Great White Chief”

MEDIUM’S AMAZING STORY

Masterful Spirit of Indian

(United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.J

T LONDON, Tuesday. /'ONSIDERABLE interest was aroused by the appearance L of the well-known author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, in the Westminster Police Court as witimsses for the defence in a case against a medium, Mrs. Clarke Caution.

The latter had declared that she was dominated by the spirit of Great White Chief, an American Red Indian who lived 400 years ago. The Crown charged Mrs. Cantlon with telling fortunes. Miss Mercy Phillimore, secretary of the London Spiritualist Alliance, was charged with aiding the medium. PROMINENT MEN IN COURT In the course of his evidence, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said the alliance did not countenance fortune-telling. It existed for the study of causes and facts, j.nd the possibilities of receiving messages from the dead, also to refute the idea that death ends all careers. Mediums were watched most carefully. Undoubtedly the majority of them were genuine. The laws governing these things were beyond human comprehension. Mediums were unconscious when they were under the control of a spirit. Sir Oliver Lodge said he always approached this subject—popularly described as spiritualism—from a purely scientific point of view. He was positively satisfied that many mediums were genuine. Unfortunately there were others.

In the case of a genuine medium, it was a kind of human faculty, not understood, but which the alliance was striving to investigate. Mediums

5 r were the instruments for that puri pose. > Dr. Hector Munro asserted that a month before the Great War a medium l had foretold the catastrophe in his presence. - Miss Phillimore stated that she al- ’» ways told people that mediums were not engaged in telling fortunes. If a medium could not go „ into a trance, the sitting was cancelled, and the • money paid was refunded. > Mrs. Cantlon said she had been dismissed by the alliance because of inL. cidents which had arisen since this . case. CHARGES DISMISSED [ The magistrate said he had changed , his mind as a result of the evidence, } and had decided to give Mrs. Cantlon the benefit of the doubt in his mind. • He assumed that on the occasion » when the policewoman visited defendant the latter believed she was under the control of the Great White Chief J and his black dog and white rabbits, but he strongly advised defendant to rid herself of a disembodied spirit • who wanted to know when it was time for luncheon or tea. His Worship added: “I have lived long enough to realise that there are ; a great many things in the world of » which I cannot be certain.” He disi missed the summonses, but ordered > defendant to pay £30..