MRS BESANT AND HER WARDS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20038, 23 March 1914, Page 2

MRS BESANT AND HER WARDS.

"THE COMING CHRIST" IN- COURT,

Mrs. Annie vEtemnt petitioned the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on Tuesday for a stay of execution or that- part of judgment of the Madras High Court, directing her to hand over two Hindu boys, who are now aged eiglitean and fifteen, and at present in England. One of them is * Krishnamarti, or " Alcyone," who is Head of the Order of the Star of the East, and is believed by some to be "tlve, coming Christ." Mrs. Besant stated that in January, 1909, tKe father of the two boys began to perform secretarial work for the Tiheosophical Society, and in a letter dated March, 1910, h© asked her to* become legal guardian of his two sons. These were placed in charee of a. tutor, and Mrs. Besant entered the names of the boys at New College, Oxford, and made the necessary arrangement with the college authorities for th^m to take up their residence in October next. The judgment of the High Court- from which Mrs. Besant has preferred an appeal affirmed a decision of Mrs. Justice Bakewell, by which the father was declared to be the guardian of the boys by revoking the authority he gave Mrs. Besant, and Mrs. Besarnt was ordered to hand them back to him by May 26, 1913. Mrs. Besant said that all (arrangements f°r the boys' education would be upset by such a course. The Hindu boys occupied seats in the Council Chamber near the counsel for petitioner, and Mr. Cozens Hardy, K.C., for the petitioner, said that they had been living at the house of Mrs. Jacob Bright," in England. The Lord Chancellor said their lordships would grant a stay of execution, and the hearing of the appeal would be expedited and would possibly come on in March. He thought it better that meanwhile the boys should not go abroad without special application.