On Wednesday, 11 May 1932, Major General J. F. C. Fuller, a noted British military strategist and author, came to meet Baba.1 Fuller asked Baba about the current political situation in the West and in India, and then inquired, "Why do you wish to establish your center in America?"
Baba replied, "Because I find there a flood of energy, though it is misdirected at the moment."
One day Baba was invited to tea at Meredith Starr's mother's house in Hampstead. From there, he revisited Margaret and Mabel's dance studio, where he watched a ballet class. Another morning, Baba and the group visited the National Gallery and the zoo.
On the night of the 11th they visited the Olympia Exhibition Hall, a huge glass and iron building.2 The following evening, Baba reluctantly accompanied the Westerners to the House of Commons. Parliament was in full session and Baba signed his name in the visitors' register.
He remarked, "This is the first time I have been in such a [government] building or signed my name to such a register."3
Adi Sr. left London for Marseilles on the 12th, as previously arranged, and sailed for India the following evening.4 Baba was required to make an appearance on the 13th at the British Foreign Office to obtain a visa to reenter India. He and the group had a farewell dinner party at the Anglo-Ceylon restaurant that evening.
Early on Saturday, 14 May 1932, many gathered for a tearful send-off at the Waterloo Station. Baba, Meredith and Margaret Starr, Quentin, Adi Jr., Beheram, Chanji, Kaka and Ghani boarded the SS Bremen bound for New York City.5 Kitty, Kim, Margaret and Delia journeyed from London to Southampton to see Baba off and bid him bon voyage as tears streamed down their cheeks.
Kim described the Gopis' heartbreak, as Baba sailed for America: "When we scrambled off the boat, nearly blind with tears, you can imagine how our hearts were aching with grief. We all sat in a row, hand in hand, and cried and cried ... I am sure we must have looked terribly funny to anyone passing by, but I'm afraid we were beyond caring what we looked like. Later, as you know, we went onto the deck of the tender and waved to you all. We thought that we could see Baba, but were not quite certain. Did he wave or not? We watched the Bremen slowly turn round and head for the open sea, and we sent our hearts, souls and minds with her."
Footnotes
- 1.Major General J.F.C. Fuller (1878–1966) has been characterized as one of the most important and original military thinkers of this century. He organized the first British tank corps in World War I, and developed the strategy and tactics of tank warfare which were later put to effective use by the Nazis for their World War II blitzkriegs. Fuller was a long-term acquaintance of Aleister Crowley and was interested in mysticism. He had corresponded with Meredith Starr.
- 2.The Olympia hosted historical pageants, exhibitions, circuses, concerts and plays, but it is not known to which event Baba went that evening. (Coincidentally, the Olympia was the venue in 1911 for the long-running play, The Miracle, in which Norina had the lead role.)
- 3.Attempts have been made to locate this "visitor's register," but without success. It was likely kept in a building that was bombed during the Blitz.
- 4.Adi Sr. sailed on the SS Mooltan, arriving in Bombay on 26 May 1932 and in Nasik three days later, where he assumed the duty of running Circle Cinema in Buasaheb's absence.
- 5.Baba had traveled on the Bremen before, in December 1931, from New York to Paris. (The Bremen was badly gutted by fire during a 1941 air raid in Germany and subsequently broken up for scrap.)