Gandhi Devotee

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 118, 21 May 1932, Page 7

Gandhi Devotee

MISS MADELINE SLADE RELEASED FROM GAOL ■By Telegraph—Press Association—CopyrirhfcJ Received May 20, 11.55 p.m. CALCUTTA, May 20. Miss Madeline Slade, the Gandhi devotee, has been released from gaol on completion of her three months’ sentence for participating in the civil dis obedience campaign. She was refused permission to interview Gandhi in Poona gaol. Miss Madeline Slade, who took the Hindu name of Mira Bei, is a daughter of the late Admiral Sir Edmund John Warne Slade. She was born in 1894. As a girl she lived in luxury, dividing her time between London and Paris. It was through reading Romain Rolland’s life of Gandhi that she was converted to the philosophy of the Hindu ascetic. She at once wrote to him and asked his permission to become one of his followers, and live at his ° Ashram’' (seminary) at Ahmedabad. After some weeks of waiting she received a letter calling her to India. She forthwith set to work to prepare herself for her new life, spending a year in Paris in studying the language and literature of her adopted country. Then, in the face of the opposition of her family, she embarked for India in 1924. On leaving EiropA Miss Slade gave up all her possessions, for Gandhi had made her swear to earn her living by the work of her hands, and had promised her a spinning wheel. She accompanied him to England when he attended the Round Ta’Tc Conference last y£ar.