1917 Watchtower Bible Student Schism - A2Z.org

i A X VEST
ofrangement will Suit Very well until any further
readjustment needs to be made according to whatever
you uuy decide to do.
"Now I must tell pa how the immediate events
developed. Aftu your telegram giving cancellation
. of all Jobnron's activities, he was quiet for twentyfour
boun or so, then suddenly blossomed out with
the statement that the election of the President of
the Soci* was absolutely out of order. He asserted
his right to rit at the bud of.the table in the Rethel
family, and in order 9 make sure of his right, he
weat and at in tke Qu befo~e the family usembled
I refused to acknowledge him u having the nght
- to represent yuu, and said to the family that this was
open rebellion. I called upon them to give no adherence
to the rebdlion aminst yoat authority u
repraenting the Society. To my rurprise most of
the brethren stayed with Johnson, and they continued
to handle the work That morning Johnson nved
at me for a couple of hours md dismissed me
half 8 dozen timu or more. His insiitence, and his
mouthing, made some of the brethren &ink that he
was the person in anthor~p, md qey had, unfortunately,
listened to hu chm of bung the antitype
of many Scripture characters pnd, as they now sayfor
they have repented-they seemed to have lost
their reoroninn facultiu. It --about the middle
of the week when I began to discern the true inwardness
of the situation, that Johnson wu not derely
intending to take control of the office in the meantime,
but that he had an dterior purpose in mind: gaining
tkr who& conhol of thr British fitld, of itr rraourers,
and nrnning a r~paratr WAX= Town.
Looking back I ken ree many thin0 which show
the working of his mind. but which be carefully 'hid.
.I tried to rally the family, but three brothen stayed
by him. enabling him to carry on the execution of
of the orders. while Brother Cormack preferred, as he
said, to be neutral, though his neutrality mve him
a good deal of intercotlrsu with Johnson and none
with me. I demanded of them a statement of the
monies received md expended, but wa refused this. In
the meantime I was in constant communication with
our solicitors, Messrs. Greenop, doing everything to
safeguard the finanaal side of our work. and felt
quite assured that, though ,we might have some
resent difficulties, the mm could nwer be handled
gy Johnson. Brothers Sherrn and Crawford, as
members of the Council of I. B. S. A. and os os-
sociates in the work, were called in. . . .
"Last Saturday I called together in the eity a few
of the Elders end Ducons of the London Church,
md told them the situation They immediately bean
to take steps to relieve the sitnatlon, and from
Bunday nightlart, we have had someone in the house
all the time A plan we had for the beqinning of
the seizing of the mails on Monday morning, failed
through an act of treachery, but we began on Tuesday
morning, and since then every letter delivered
has come through my care. Johnson was furious.
He, and Brother Haden with him. spent much
time in meditating over the situation I asked agam
for the mom and statement, believing that the
money was rax in the safe. As refusal was made,
it seemed necessary to take some more stringent
mwures, for we had found it impossible to do
mything in the way of arresting Johnson for lunacy.
SOCIETY S FUNDS TAKEN FROM SAFE
"So on Wednesday both Brothers Johnson and
Housden having gone to bed rather early, Johnson's
door was held while Brother Cronk, one of our
Elders, and I went up to Housdcn's room and demanded
the keys. Two helpers were nearby, and
on Housdcn's refusal to hand them over, they were
taken out of his pocket, though without any violence,
for he made no resistance. On going down to the
rate, I found the money xonc They had scooped
a deposit of f5o' in gold which we had by us, about
640 which had been given to the relief of the Military
situation, and which was ne~thcr the Society's,
nor the Church's money, and a good sum of about
dl50 ,besides the .takings during the days when they
held the mah. Besidu thia sum there was a cheque
of f350. a donation, and which I believe we shall
yet tave to ourselvu. though at the moment there
rs a little doubr Housden refused to say where
the mon was, and we had to talk to him pretty
promised however, that he wodd not
dfnkhnhn any mar We had spoken to him
about the possibility of the police coming ia I
should here tell you that the day before, Brother
Dingel, who had his head twisted with Johnson's
talk, saw the tot1 of the situation ~nd apologized
and repudiated Jokson'l positiob. ke, feellng some
ruponaibiiity, had one u to .Brother HousdeaD6
room to lead with aim. 'he wwmdor-bllnd was up.
Brother bingle switched on the electric lieht, and
got so busy talkiig with Hourden that ne~ther of
them noticed that they were breahng the lighting
regulations. Ahbout 1130 p. m. the door bell rang,
and I went down to see what w the matter. A
constable was at the door wanting an explanation
of this violation of the v q stringent London lighting
regulations. He ins~sted upon recing those
who were responsible, ad I Fad to take him upstairs.
You can imagine the situatronl Here was a constable
appearing at the bedroom door jmmediately
after our talk stbout the constable commg. However,
that matter was roon over, and the constable
went away, knowing nothing, of course, of our convvsatioa
LEAVES. BETHEL THROUGH UPPER WINDOW
"About a o'clock in the mom in^ Brother Johnson's
foot began oundinq on the door, and he had
not n great difKcuh in dnving away the bit of wood
that had bun wedged against it to keep him within
bounds.. It had been his habit of late to go wmdering
about the house between two and four in the
morning, evidently teeing if his possessions were
safe, for he is a very suspicious Sracter. Brother
Cronk, who was rleeping in along with another
brother, spoke to Johnson, told him he could go into
the bathroom if he want!& bur ha must remember
that he could not have thmgt hts own wry, md that
8 constable had been up to see Brother Housden the
ni ht before. Of course this wu a blt ot blue to
he to keep Johnson within bounds. He rent up
to &ousden's room. and when he found that Brother
Horrsden would not come out to him, he be to
think there was something wrong with 84, Kven
Terrace Instead of goin into the bathroom, he
hutily dressed himself, left hi. baggage open, got
out on the balcony, d then the milk deLvcrers
raw the ludicrous sight of a man in a tall hat and
frock coat and, as they said, with goloshes only,
letting himself down from the balcony snto tbe street
It the matter were not so rerious, the lud'rorous ride ,
comes on this, because it was only the fear for his
skin, impelled by an evil conscience, that made him
do this foolish thing. T.he front door w loose,
he could have walked down and walked out We
wondered wbat had become of him. but one or tko
strange telephone musaga through the day assured
us that he waa standing by the speaker endeavoring
to get some knowledge of his friend, Brotber .Hour- .
den. He turned up at the Court yesterday, and saw
ht failure written large across the happer~+gs at
the Cou* Afterwards he said he was willing to
go back to America, and Brother Housden axpressed
his readiness tq go also, putting it as if he thought
he sh6uM go to take care of Johnson, but, es I believe,
with the, fear in his heart that this embezzlemerit
of the money mlght bring serious cmequencer
to him.
"Durin the day Brother Housden delivered to
Brother &nue, who had hqd some talk with him, I
package of money contalrung about f220 in gold,
treasury notes and other paper, but here rtuned a
little trickery, because he has said he w willing
yo deliver up the money to me, for Brotber Gentle
phoned to ray that the money had been pkced in
his care, but he was to ho!d it until he had a note
from Johnsoda solicitors svmg him 11bem to hand
it over. I immedately reminded Brother Gentle of
his danger in handling what ~ a practically a stolen
prop-, d of what he himself has raid to Brother