The Vegan Winter 1954

T H E VEGAN SOCIETY Founded November,

1944

Minimum subscription, which includes "The Vegan," 7s. 6d. per annum, payable in January. Life Membership, £7 7s. Od.

President: Mrs.

, Purley, Surrey.

E L S I E B. SHRIGLEY,

Honorary Mrs.

Honorary Mr.

Secretary: , Ewell, Surrey.

HILDA HONEYSETT,

L . C . WARREN,

Treasurer: , Dovercourt, Essex.

THE VEGAN JOURNAL OF THE VEGAN SOCIETY Editor:

Mr.

Editorial Advertisement

, Reigate, Surrey.

JOHN HERON,

Board:

Mrs.

M U R I E L DRAKE, Mrs. E L S I E B. SHRIGLBY, M r . ANTHONY CLARK, M r . JACK SANDERSON.

Manager:

Mr.

, London, S.W.10.

Published quarterly: Annual subscription, 4s. 6d. post free: single copies, 18. 2d. post free. Obtainable from the Hon. Secretary.

JACK SANDERSON,

.'.'• BRANCHES O F T H E SOCIETY A N D SECRETARIES LONDON.—Miss Mavis Lardge,

, London, N.6.

YORKSHIRE.—Miss Stella Rex, Nr. Leeds.

, Garforth,

MIDLANDS. - M r . Don Burton, Warwick*.

, Stratford-on-Avon,

BRISTOL.—Mrs. E. Hughes,

, Knowle, Bristol 4.

MANCHESTER.—Miss Ann E. Owens, •SCOTTISH SECTION.—Miss Liberton, Edinburgh, 9.

Dina

, Northenden.

M. Sutherland,

(Please communicate with your nearest Branch Secretary)

THE

VEGAN

Journal of The Vegan Society Vol.

IX

SPECIAL ISSUE

No. 3

EDITORIAL BASIC ISSUES

This issue of The Vegan celebrates the conclusion of the first decade of the Society's existence.

Veganism, startling and extreme to so many at its inception, now, after ten years, finds its ideals echoed throughout the world. Among a discerning minority in Europe, in North America, in India and in Japan, the word " veganism " is known, its meaning and significance accepted and acknowledged. Why is this? Surely because it represents the kernel, the essence, of vegetarian thought and practice. Unassailable in argument and logic, proven in experience, adequate in practice, it both symbolizes and incarnates the true path of man through perfect harmlessness to spiritual liberty.

For those who happen to be reading this journal for the first time, may we say that veganism is the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals. In a deeper sense this implies a condemnation of man's perversion of the life-force flowing through certain species of the animal kingdom. He breeds animals not only to kill them and consume their carcasses; but also extensively and thoughtlessly to exploit their sex functions (e.g., of the cow and the hen) thereby to supply himself with large quantities of—ideally—unnecessary animal products.

What are the various perversions involved? We may instance artificial insemination and enforced bulling, i.e., compulsory and continual pregnancy and lactation; selective breeding to produce heavy layers among fowls and heavy milkers among cows, resulting in a false and degenerate development of the species; forcible separation of the cow from her new-born calf in order to obtain her milk for humans; the wholesale slaughter of bulls, bull-calves, cocks and old worn-out females for food. It should be noted that these various evils are interdependent. In a world where no animals were slaughtered for food, could truly humane poultry and dairy farming—on anything like an adequate scale to meet nutritional requirements—be a practicable and economic possibility?

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Let us consider poultry farming; fully consistent humane requirements are that males and non-productive females should not be killed or sold for slaughter. This would lead in time to a disproportionate relationship between bird population and productivity.

The farmer would become a slave to a large number of birds in order to obtain, relative to the cost, space and time involved, a small number of eggs. With respect to the latter, a certain number must be fertilized in order to replace stock; the resulting chicks of both sexes must be allowed to fulfil their natural span of life.* If the eggs used for food are non-fertilized, we again interfere in an arbitrary way with the biological destiny of the species.

What about dairy farming? Well, if we are to be humane, we allow the cow to have her calf according to the natural rhythms of her species, we permit her to feed it and take only the surplus milk. We do not kill bull calves or old cows. Again we have as a result a disproportionate relationship. Would the quantity of milk obtained constitute a nutritionally significant amount and would it justify the cost, time and agricultural land involved in feeding, raising and supporting all the male and female cattle involved?

I personally do not doubt that both poultry and dairy farming could be made reasonably humane if someone were sufficiently wealthy and irrational to attempt it. But the ridiculously exaggerated situation involved would incline one to believe that this sort of relationship between man and animals was never intended.

For animals would become, so to speak, parasites upon the generosity of man: both psychically and economically undesirable.

In any case, who could afford to do it? It seems that in so far as we have tampered with the species in question in order to use their sex functions as a source of food, we are committed to the further evil of a certain amount of slaughtering in order to keep the situation economically under control. In short, it is from the start a wrong relationship, however we try to handle it.

The realities of the situation will, I believe, become increasingly clear the more intelligent, sensitive and morally alert people depart from the deceptive ease of urban life and become acquainted with these facts at first hand. The issue then arises: is it possible to obtain sufficient animal products to meet protein requirements in a practicable and economic way and at the same time pay full respect to the living principle that informs the species that provide them?

There are two further points. First, there is no consideration with respect to what is really advantageous for the development of the animals concerned. In other words, does poultry and dairy farming advance or retrogress the line of evolution to which the *It is important to note that the humane poultry or dairy farmer must replace stock from his own animals. If he replaces female stock from outside, he merely shifts the responsibility of eliminating unwanted males to others.

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species concerned belong? Our responsibility to other aspects of planetary evolution is to encourage them to find their own highest level of expression, not to warp and digress them to meet our own demands. Second, these demands themselves can only meet with the highest suspicion. Is there not an element of ignobility, a taint of degradation in supposing that we can construct the living temple of the indwelling spirit with substances that are derived from a capricious meddling with the sexual activities of animals? The whole purpose of physical generation, in any species, animal or human, is to produce higher and nobler forms. I suggest that man will not attain his full stature, either physically or spiritually, until he has endeavoured to assist the universal application of this principle. Dairy and poultry farming cannot seriously claim to do so.

DEEPER CONSIDERATIONS

The previous paragraph leads to one fundamental question. .

What is the correct relationship between man and animals? The key to a comprehensive answer lies, I would suggest—and here I am going to obtrude aspects of a personal occult philosophy—in the fact that there are two different types of consciousness evolving upon this planet: the human and the non-human. The human consciousness grows through the experience of physical incarnation and subsequently on more interior and emancipated planes of being. By the non-human consciousness, I refer to those spiritual beings, called in some schools the devas, whose unfoldment proceeds, perhaps, through the creation of, and control over, the different species of plant and animal life. They develop their consciousness through the elaboration of organic forms on the physical plane. I cannot enter here into the more intricate implications of the interactions of these two lines of evolution except to say, of course, that mutual co-operation must be the basis for the successful unfoldment of planetary life in all its aspects. If we assist high nature spirits in the production of nobler and more perfect organic forms, we further their evolution and they build up an increasingly elevating world for us to inhabit, with a commensurate effect upon our own consciousness. But how in fact does this work out in practice? There is not space to suggest the more advanced aspects of work in this field, but for a simple example we may consider the plant kingdom.

Undoubtedly there is a manifestation of life in the plant kingdom, but of different degree to that in the animal kingdom, consequently the proper cultivation of wholesome plant foods constitutes a sphere of legitimate interaction between the devic and human lines of evolution. If we understand, in terms of soil science, fertility farming, bio-dynamic agriculture and the like, the mode in which the devas work through the elementary beings of arch-nature (i.e., of the unseen nature behind that which is seen), they will be given a chance to develop themselves through the 3

production of superior plants of undoubted quality and nutritional value that can do a great deal to restore man not only to physical health, but also to a more spiritual and " organic " mode of perception^ since plant foods tend to liberate the spiritual consciousness.

Co-operation in this way, on a basis of true understanding, serves to augment the unfoldment of both sides. Conversely, incorrect methods of agriculture simply result in mutual stultification, through the deficiencies of plant and human forms.

Even to the sensitive this whole conception may seem a somewhat fanciful affront to a more rationalistic view of the world in which we live. Yet I am convinced that until we have recovered the " lost mythology of nature ", until we forewarn the spirit of the tree that we wish to cut down, until indeed we pay full respect to the existence of the vast and unseen sphere of life whose development takes place before our eyes in that magnificent succession of the multitudinous forms of nature, we shall not enter fully into our inheritance as " gardeners of the planet."

Now if the evolution of the different species of animals represents the objectification of the development of certain high nature spirits, it is appropriate for us to ask what part man can play in the appearance of ever higher forms of animal life. Here again there are many deeper aspects to consider, a , variety of issues which might perhaps take a whole book to discuss thoroughly; but we can attain to a general picture of the highest possible relationship between man and animals.

Plants do not move from point to point: they grow in a composite vertical and spiral manner always retaining (in the majority of species) their centre of gravity roughly over the same piece of ground. Therefore man, by horticulture and agriculture (of the correct kind), does not interfere with, and can only enhance, their evolution: for as the plant is concerned with the creation of an organic form in a given area of space, when it is put in the right place at the right, time and in the right soil it can go about its work without any limitations whatsoever being imposed upon it.

Animals, however, are endowed with a capacity for movement: an endowment with which the elaboration of sense organs is closely allied. Here, there is a higher degree of manifested life than in the plant kingdom, for in animals life manifests in a pattern of behaviour through movement as well as in the creation of an organic form. Only where it has unrestricted movement in its natural milieu can a given species fully express its innate behaviourpattern. This is because the behaviour-pattern is designed, so to speak, to interact closely with the full range of factors found in nature. And this suggests that man's first responsibility to the devas concerned with the animal kingdom is to provide parks and wildlife preserves where they may go about their work of unfolding animal behaviour-patterns unmolested. Such sanctuaries are, of course, already in existence in Africa, North America and elsewhere.

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But it is not only the provision of such preserves that is important. For once they have been established man can then, in a new mode, continue on the principle of co-operative cultivation that he has applied in the plant kingdom. Thus, in the light of a true knowledge of the manner of devic activity he can assist the evolu.tion of the animal species by such things as a discreet control over ecological factors, and the wise management of the balance of the species, and, no doubt, by various other means. There is no interference here with the behaviour-pattern of the species, but only the introduction of subtle modifications into the total area, or park, within which such behaviour-patterns are expressed. This suggests an area of human activity of deep interest, which, while significant perhaps only for the more remote future, indicates that man's responsibility to the devic evolution calls not only for love, but for love expressed through wisdom, the higher science of the new age. Cultivation here is directly analogous to that applied to plants: the introduction of those factors into the natural environment of the species in order thereby to assist the devic workers to ever higher manifestations of organic form and activity.

Can it be argued, however, that certain species can be legitimately brought into much closer association with man—their original forms and behaviour-patterns very considerably modified by the conditions of this association—to the advantage both of the devas concerned and of man? Or, to rephrase it slightly, is it in the true scheme of things that man and the devas working through certain species should co-operate for certain purposes to their mutual advantage?

Let us see what man has actually done in the way of bringing animals into association with himself. We will discount as totally wrong the relationships implied in such things as raising animals for meat, cavalry, vivisection, fur-raising and all similar evils wherein , man studiously accomplishes the crucifixion of seen and unseen nature. These serious distortions of planetary relationships cast a vicious knife into the heart of nature and infect the human race with misery. There is no justification for them. We engage in darkness and we partake of darkness as a result. But the three principal relationships about which there is the greatest controversy among humanitarians, are those in which animals work for man, provide him with materials for clothing, and provide him with milk, .milk products and eggs. It is frequently argued that man and animals were meant to co-operate together for these three ends.

There is certainly no doubt that they confer apparent advantages on man, but the argument is surely invalid if the species concerned do not benefit more than they suffer.

I have only space here to deal with the third relationship concerning animal products, with which I am particularly concerned in this essay. The reader may find out what is involved in the other two by applying to them somewhat similar arguments as those that follow, although possibly with considerable variation 5

in result. Now it has been claimed that the human and bovine races were intended to co-operate together in the production of milk. This idea may seem, at first sight, reasonable, but a little analysis seems to me to reveal that it is thoroughly misleading, if not downright dangerous.

True co-operation between two parties is on a basis of love and with a resultant benefit to both. A given species—and thereby the devas manifesting through it—can only benefit from a mode of co-operation that leads to a new and educative and possibly improved behaviour-pattern, and also to a gradual improvement in its organic structure. The production of milk, however, tends to a distortion of the sexual and maternal behaviour-pattern of the species concerned, and, through selective breeding, to a degeneration of organic form leading to over-production, short life and disease.

The primary advantage—apart from protection, food and shelter—that domesticated animals, such as pets, can receive from man is the radiation of his love and understanding. For when a man truly loves and understands animals—who, of course, respond instantly and markedly to any manifestation of love and trust— the devic and human modes of consciousness meet on the highest possible level, each experiences a sense of upliftment at having penetrated to the inner recesses of a totally different order of being, and a corresponding expansion of consciousness is the result. Yet for reasons gven in the earlier part of this essay, I suggest that it is not possible consistently to love the animals involved in milk production while maintaining the nutritional relationship on a practicable basis. There seems to be very little return at all to the devic line of evolution in this matter, for the " co-operation " is, in fact, " exploitation ".

The truth of the matter seems to me that man has isolated a certain species, inordinately increased its numbers and possibly created a serious unbalance in the unseen realms of nature. We may well wonder to what degree the wholesale enslavement of those elementary beings who are continually called upon in total disregard of the more leisurely cycles of their normal activity to pour down their life-energies into the glandular and generative organs of the cow and the hen, involves a considerable disruption in the evolutionary trend of, and amongst the interplay of forces in, nature. The devic evolution here has obviously been cast into a cancerous retrogression. And the corollary in terms of radiesthesia, is whether the vibratory quality of the foods thus produced has a desirable effect, particularly upon the young. (It has been suggested, for example, that the milk from artificially inseminated cows stimulates prematurely the sex glands of the children who consume it.)

The most that one can say is that the use of animal milk by man was an accommodation appropriate perhaps to the not-solight, past cycles of the planet, when more primitive conditions, 6

smaller populations, a greater at-one-ness with nature, kept it to a small scale and kept its subsidiary evils in check. But it cannot seriously be justified by anyone who is concerned ultimately with the emergence of a new and regenerate order of human and animal life. More than this, I would like to suggest that we cannot expect to receive much illumination about those higher forces of nature upon which so much of the science of the new age will surely be based, until our physical and moral relationships to those forces have been restored to that degree of grace and purity that is revealed by a full analysis of the facts to have been originally intended.

I come now to the deepest aspect of the animal-man relationship: that subtle and profound interaction on the level of qualities which reveals a fundamental key to the manner in which man in the most interior way can assist the appearance of higher forms, can augment the influence of those animals with desirable behaviour-patterns and decrease the influence of those with undesirable attributes.

Animals represent the various higher and lower aspects of mankind spread out symbolic form upon the face of the earth.

They constitute, so to speak, a mobile card-index of human behaviour. They are the diversified objectification of qualities that mankind itself is manifesting. The correlation may not in all instances be obvious, but broadly speaking the imaginative will perceive its validity. In displaying the qualities that they represent, such as swiftness, courage, industry, strength, docility, peacefulness, in a pure, untampered way, animals create a living, magnetic envelope, a psychic sphere surrounding the planet that provides a vital force of great value to us in our daily lives. This is not a particularly difficult conception if we think of the flat and tepid condition of a world devoid of animal life. Animals, so to speak, radiate an ambience of volatile and natural enthusiasm that conditions our own response to life.

But the return current is doubtlessly more powerful. If man radiates true compassion and all noble qualities; if he ceases to radiate the ill-effects of his predatory and nefarious habits, there will tend to be a corresponding amelioration of affairs among animals; higher forms will tend to appear, those that live by tooth and claw will tend to die out. Indeed, I venture to suggest, so profound is the working power of this symbolic relationship, that when man totally desists from his present war-like andj carnivorous habits, the carnivorous and similar animals will have been removed from the earth by a discreet and subtle interaction of natural forces.

The modus operandi of the relationship is probably not only by direct cause and effect on the level of qualities, but also by a parallel reaction of both mankind and the animal kingdom to higher forces or inspirations acting on each.

Here again we can see a dual process of co-operative unfoldment. By the exercise of compassion and the manifestation of his higher nature, and by the wise administration of parks and 7

preserves, man provides on the psychic and corporeal levels respectively, suitable conditions for the progress of devic evolution; the resulting improvement, as it were, in animal behaviour raises the psychic " tone " of the planet and provides vital force of a higher grade as a basis for the positive expression of man's higher attributes.

The great mistake is to believe that we have a right to appropriate this vital force by eating animals or'their products. There is no doubt that animal foods act like a psychic charge to the organism: the physiological correspondence to this is described by nutritionists as the " specific dynamic action " of flesh-foods. But in the very act of obtaining it the law of the symbolism becomes inexorably applied. The cruel and predatory qualities in man, to which every slaughterhouse testifies, merely sustains the power of those species that respond thereto. But more than this, by slaughtering the more gentle animals for food, man unwittingly slays the gentle principle within himself, for the decaying flesh that he consumes with its poisonous "extractives" induces upon his nervous system those states of irritability, moodiness and aggressiveness, that lay the foundations for a war-like spirit. Is it unfair to find an equation between those vast herds of cows, strange degenerate creatures, reduced to complete docility, receiving continual sexual stimulation, and the inert cupidity of the massmind of modern mankind, among whom there is so much sexual intoxication? Milk is notoriously inadequate as a brain food, and with its other " qualities " . . ? Contemporary poultry and dairy farming, any more than the slaughterhouse, do not lend themselves happily to symbolic interpretation. I strongly recommend that we examine imaginatively the conditions and habits of all animals upon the face of the earth and thus learn a little more about ourselves. The implications of this conception will repay meditation.

And perhaps, finally, if man is able to learn the keys to establishing a correct relationship with animals, they will come forward voluntarily, under the power of devic inspiration, to associate with him in unexpected and profound ways.

JOHN HERON.

SPECIAL ISSUE Although we have called this a special issue of The Vegan to celebrate the first ten years of the Vegan Society, it is actually a much delayed version of the Winter, 1954, number, and should be considered as such in the series. The Committee felt it was appropriate to come out in new dress for this occasion. Please send your comments on the new lay-out to the Editor. Please note also that this issue is correctly numbered as Number 3 of Volume IX. The previous two numbers should, of course, have been Numbers 1 and 2, not 9 and 10.

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THE SURGE OF FREEDOM Leslie J. Cross is an attempt to state in simple terms what veganism is and why and how it came into existence, and to suggest what it could mean for mankind.

The word " veganism" is a symbol that stands for a major change, a new mutation comparable to the freeing of the serfs and the freeing of the slaves.

Its official definition—" the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals"—is accurate, precise and comprehensive, but not always fully understood. This is not as surprising as it might seem, for rarely have nine short words enshrined a reform so massive, the achievement of which would bring a new world and new men to inhabit it.

THIS

•

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*

Why do we believe we should live without exploiting animals?

To put the question in another form, why was such a doctrine formulated?

The final if not the immediate answer is a revealing one, for it demonstrates the truth of the claim that veganism is not a mere side-shoot in human evolution, but a central extending growth of considerable significance.

Veganism owes its birth to the fact that at the deepest point within us we believe impregnably in freedom—particularly perhaps those who were .born and bred in these traditionally, freedom-loving islands.

Freedom to live our own lives in our way, according to our own inward light, is fundamental to our view of life itself. It is in the light of this concept that we find the true significance of the vegan reform. Only when we see it as a doctrine not of restriction (as those who oppose it mistakenly believe), but of freedom, do we fully comprehend it.

The simple fact is this: that at rock bottom, veganism is the most recent of the periodic surges which have marked the tide of freedom ever since history began. It is distinguished from its predecessors by virtue of the fact that it brings a quite new and distinctive feature into the long fight for liberty; it has driven the tide of freedom beyond what has hitherto been held to be its natural boundary—the concept of the free man. Until the advent of veganism, comparatively few men regarded the animals as being either worthy of or entitled to the right to be free, and probably fewer still realised the impressive effect which the granting of such a right would have upon the freedom of man himself.

The real, the indelible significance of veganism is its devastatingly logical demonstration that by denying, to the animals the right to be free, man keeps locked against himself the gateway to his own further pursuit of happiness.

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T o believe in the right to be free means inevitably that we grant that same right to others. If we fail in this, we deny the principle itself. We thus make of Orwell's 1984 a logical possibility and the slavery of one man to another a justifiable act. To put it in another way, the law of freedom—which is also the law of love —knows no limits. Because in his mind man has excluded the animals from its operation, he has set arbitrary limits upon it, and in so doing has reaped what he has sown—a severe limitation upon his own progress. It is upon this factor, this little-recognised bar to the upward growth of man, that veganism throws such a ruthless and revealing light.

When we turn to the question of how veganism came into the world we find an excellent example of the indirect approach which the forces of destiny sometimes adopt.

The mundane fact is that the seed of veganism grew out of a year's argument in the correspondence columns of The Vegetarian Messenger about the moral case against the use of dairy produce by vegetarians. At the end of the correspondence, a handful of vegetarians decided they would like to form themselves into a " non-dairy " group within the Vegetarian Society. But the Society declined and suggested that these few members should set up an organisation of their own. Thus was the Vegetarian Society the unwitting handmaid of destiny, for the direct result of its action was the formation of the Vegan Society in November, 1944.

The new society was not long content with being merely " nonflesh, non-dairy, non-egg, non-honey ". Commodities such as fur, leather and wool joined animal food as being " non-vegan".

There was an early attempt to get at the root of what is wrong with the relationship between man and the animals; to deal with the cause rather than its almost uncountable effects. However, not without some years of internal stress and strain was the society able to be precise about what it wanted to do. It made up its mind finally on November 11th, 1950, when it agreed in a special general meeting that what it wanted to do was to end the exploitation of animals by man.

Between 1944 and 1950 the inner and true meaning of veganism was held " in solution ", undefined and incompletely recognised.

The " non-dairy" motivation was from the start clearly insufficient as a final meaning; it was in fact no more than the triggermovement that impelled a new and profound truth into the world.

In 1950, when the meaning of veganism became generally apparent, it was formulated into a simple phrase which was inserted into the society's constitution.

Since 1950 there has been no doubt as to its meaning. The short definition quoted in the early part of this article is amplified

by Rule 4 (a): " the Society shall seek to end the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection and all other uses involving explbitation of animal life by man."

Although prior to 1950 there was a good deal of argument as 10

to what veganism in fact was, one thing was never in doubt: the impelling power behind the movement was, and remains, compassion for the animals, arising out of their treatment at the hands of man. It was compassion that led the first handful to band together in 1944 and it is compassion that provides the motive power to-day. *

*

*

*

As a society, an important part of our work is to bring to the notice of men everywhere something which might otherwise escape their attention: the all-round importance of animal emancipation.

Animals present man with the supreme test of his worthiness and ability to advance; the test of how he behaves toward those over whom he possesses power.

It is sad but true that in the face of this test more often than not he seeks his own ends at the cost of suffering to the animals.

He hunts, slaughters, vivisects and enslaves them. To obtain their milk he inflicts upon them some of the least worthy of all his exploitations—the deliberate and forcible separation of mother cow from baby calf. He takes the wild, free and noble horse, breaks, castrates and harnesses it. His constant prayer is not so much for daily bread, as for daily flesh. The compassionate man may well be excused for asking pointedly what kind of a relationship this can be, that has for its symbols the whip and the bit and the slaughterer's knife.

The American writer Henry Bailie Stevens has argued that one of the " wrong turnings " taken by man somewhere in his evolution was the enslavement (" domestication ") of animals. The contention is to say the least logical. There is not much common sense, for example, in asking for peace on earth and at the same time prosecuting what amounts to war upon the animals.

What is needed to begin with to correct this evolutionary deviation is acceptance of the idea that animal emancipation is a desirable aim. If a sufficient number of people experienced such a mental conversion, then the skills and ingenuity of men could be used to develop alternatives to those products of animal origin which the majority of men undoubtedly believe to be essential to their well-being. These products—a completely satisfactory nonanimal milk is an example—are necessary if the universal practical application of the ideal is to be achieved. For men and women are not all alike and there are many for whom the practical obstacles must at present seem insurmountable. We cannot shut our eyes to the undoubted fact that to such people such obstacles are real and not imaginary.

In order to provide the vegan movement with sufficient resources and skill, it is vital to attract people to it. The most immediate method is the spreading of the idea—the idea of animal emancipation. We shall welcome converts of whatever degree—those who can promise no more than mental acceptance equally with those 11

who faithfully and so far as they are able, put their acceptance of the ideal into daily practice.

As the idea becomes more and more accepted, opportunities will grow to make the path easier and more attractive for those whose nature is not that of the pioneer. Concurrent with the gradual removal of obstacles to personal practice, attention will have to be given to the question of how we propose to deal with animals in general as soon as the change-over from exploitation to freedom reaches a certain stage. It is not difficult to see that such a change-over will bring with it problems of a wide and general character. No-one, least of all the vegan, wants a world without animals—and how in general and in detail we propose to effect the swing-over from exploitation and perversion to freedom and naturalness will be quite a talking point one fine day.

If I may intrude a personal observation, there is little more desirable I would ask of providence than that such a day should dawn while I am still here to experience it. How glorious, for example, to take part in a discussion to decide whether, for the purposes of the change-over, a nature park or an animal sanctuary should be set up in this or that part of the country and exactly how it should be planned!

When veganism reaches such a stage there will have been an immense change of heart and mind in the majority of men and women. The idea of exploiting animals will be as repugnant then, as the idea of human slavery is to-day. Some of the changes in daily living are obvious. There will, for example, be no butchers' shops and the milkman (if he still goes his rounds) will be delivering vegan milk. The countryside will not be heavy with the anguish of cows crying for their calves. There will be no slaughterhouses, no vivisection laboratories, no-one will hunt animals for fun . . .

But some of the changes are not so obvious. The benefits to man himself of living in a kindlier and more enlightened world can be envisaged only in broadest outline. His health, physical and mental, will be vastly improved. Because he will have shed a great deal of the coarser part of his nature, benefits of the spirit will shower upon him—benefits which to-day by his own short-sighted volition he denies himself.

Such is the stuff of dreams . . . To make them true requires that we play our part as it comes to us. We are in the very elementary stages of the new mutation. We are the pioneers.

SUBSCRIPTION REMINDER The Executive Committee earnestly request all Members and Associates to assist their Society in the most practicable way possible, by sending in their subscriptions immediately and without delay. Thank you. Mr. L. C. Warren is still receiving subscriptions.

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WHAT IS TRUE VEGETARIANISM? Pietro Rotondi, D.c., N.D. A s A VEGETARIAN for over thirty-six years, it is an honour and a pleasure to meet other vegetarians personally or even through the pages of a vegetarian magazine. After being introduced to strangers, however, our conversation usually follows a pattern.

They say heartily, " So you too are a vegetarian. Splendid! " Then I pose the question: " Y o u are vegetarians in the true sense of the word, that is, you eat neither eggs nor take milk?"

After a short, dazed silence comes the shocking reply: " But, of course, we eat lots of eggs and drink plenty of milk; naturally, we don't touch meat; we are lacto-ovo-vegetarians!"

What a rude awakening ninety per cent of that type of vegetarian has later on! In fact, I contend that lacto-ovo-vegetarians have no right to be called vegetarians at all.

Webster defines a vegetarian as " one who abstains from a meat diet and lives on fruit, vegetables and farinaceous foods." We add nuts, legumes, roots and tubers to complete the definition. There is no mention of any animal product in the dictionary's definition.

It is my earnest contention that any product of the animal kingdom is no more fit to be consumed as food than the animal itself. And any person who consumes animal products is not eligible to be classed as a vegetarian, for there is much truth in the old adage, " You may as well eat the Devil as drink his broth."

The animal kingdom has been called " a reservoir of disease " by no less an eminent medical authority than Dr. Karl F. Meyer, M.D., Director of the Medical Centre, University of California, in San Francisco.

Mr. William H. Feldman, D.V.M., M.S., Mayo Foundation, Rochester, N.Y., in an address to the Medical College of Virginia, May 7th, 1938, stated: " Man is indebted to the animals for food, furs, clothing, leather, fertilizer and medicines, besides work and companionship; but on the other side of the ledger many human diseases are traceable directly or indirectly to contact with diseased animals or their by-products."

The above facts were not directed toward vegetarians; they are all the more emphatic, however, coming from flesh-eating, dairyproduct-consuming members of the human race to admit.

Brucellosis (undulant fever), psittacosis, rabies, tularemia, encephalomyelitis (sleeping sickness), tuberculosis, spotted fever, bubonic plague, jaundice, trichinosis and other worm parasites including tapeworm and thyroid cancer, should be an imposing enough array to impress all with the seriousness of animal-to-man communicable diseases.

For specific instances, I can cite the case of a lacto-ovo-vege13

tarian, a girl whom we shall call Miss C. She was stricken with rheumatic fever, but under strict, natural care she completely recovered; whereas her friend, a flesh-eater, died with the same disease.

After marrying a flesh-eater, Miss C accepted his food habits.

Infected with strepto-cocci of the throat, her husband was hospitalized and died. Her sister, well known as a lacto-ovo-vegetarian in the local health movement, became ill with the same virulent disease. Treated by our natural methods, she soon recovered.

Her non-vegetarian husband—with strong alcoholic tendencies— also became infected and, accepting our treatment, recovered under strict, natural care within a week's time. Such a case proved again that animal products are no less virulent than the dead flesh itself.

Then there was five-year-old Mary G, who was suffering from tonsilitis and enlarged adenoids. Her family medical doctor advised immediate surgery. A neighbour suggested natural healing methods. Mary's parents were open-minded and by forbidding the quarts of milk the child would have consumed and discontinuing eggs from her diet, Mary soon became a healthy specimen of childhood under my direction. This occurred some years ago and without the mutilation of the knife.

The above two brief cases could be multiplied by the hundreds and my greatest concern to-day as a doctor of natural methods deals with the many children—and adults too—who must needlessly be subjected to surgery when proper diet and natural care could restore them to good health.

Granted that my readers do not eat the flesh of animal, fish or fowl, let us then consider the butter and egg question fairly, honestly and impartially. And I do not ask anyone to accept my word alone; there are the aforementioned men of medicine who themselves make acknowledgements.

It has been established through analysis that the composition of cow's milk is vastly different from human mother's milk. The former was intended to build large, bony structures, including horns, hooves and ninety-eight per cent more hair. According to the late authority, Dr. John H. Kellogg, " The popular notion that cow's milk contains everything needful for nutrition is an unfortunate and dangerous error though one into which a person very naturally falls. Eggs and milk are exactly adapted to the nourishment of the species of animals producing them. They are not so well adapted for use by adults of the same species nor the young of other species."

May I add here the proven fact that certain types of dangerous streptococci and other groups of bacteria may actually flourish at the temperature of pasteurization. Statistics available indicate that cancer occurs with higher frequency among people who are habitual milk drinkers. I maintain that in view of the overwhelming evidence against cow's milk,* supported by the pages 14

which have been written regarding its dangers, it should be outlawed for human consumption entirely!

The foregoing statements—necessarily but a brief mention of the case against milk—should give rise to serious consideration by my readers of the continued use of milk, especially by those who are truly health-minded.

Now let us consider eggs. How can such innocent items of food be contaminated and why are they so unhealthful, are natural queries asked by the uninformed. Here is the answer. The cycle of infection from hen to egg to chick is illustrated by the fact that chicks hatched from eggs of pullorum-infected hens carry infection in their yolks, internal organs and intestines at the time of hatching.

If an infected pullet-chick survives, it will mature and lay infected eggs. There is a vicious circle indeed for the egg-eater to contemplate. In one test, among the 1,728 incubator eggs tested, infection up to 8.4 per cent was found to be present. Poultry men know that it is unsafe to feed eggs to chickens at any age because of the danger of pullorum disease!! Yet people eat eggs every day.

Chicken leukemia appears to be transmitted naturally by direct and indirect contact. fThere is considerable evidence that this disease is transmitted through the egg.

A food experimenter, Kossowitz of Vienna, found that fresh eggs often contain molds, yeasts and various micro-organisms.

Only twelve per cent of eggs examined were entirely free from bacteria. AH eggs are strongly open to suspicion. When hens are infected with white diarrhoea, their eggs contain the germs which produce colitis in human beings. The chief reason for the poor keeping qualities lies in the fact that the eggs become infected before they are laid, but it is a proven fact that germs also penetrate the shell, thus setting up putrefaction. It is my firm conviction that eggs are as unfit for human consumption as is milk.

My personal experience as a naturopathic physician and a vegetarian allows me safely to state that eighty per cent or more of my practice has been devoted to healing misled people—individuals who deeply desired to live the natural way and considered themselves to be honestly health-minded, but who, through their consumption of animal by-products, had fallen heir to the many ills these killer-foods will produce.

May I further reveal that I have seen children trained as true vegetarians from birth—either on mother's milk or nut milks and without the use of eggs — appear invariably stronger, more active and less susceptible to childhood diseases and, in fact, free to associate with non-vegetarian children afflicted with the ills of bad feeding; furthermore, they more successfully repelled disease invasions than flesh-eaters or " lacto-arians."

•••See Otto Carque's Vital Fads About Food.

•fRead The Animal Kingdom—A Reservoir of Diseases, by Julius Gilbert White.

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A research recently conducted by Mervyn G. Hardinge, M.D., School of Medicine, College of Medical Evangelists, Loma Linda, Calif., among 88 flesh-eaters, 86 lacto-ovo-vegetarians and 26 true ( " pure ") vegetarians, disclosed that there is little difference between the three groups when blood analyses are compared. It was interesting to note that the cholesterol level of the true vegetarians was appreciably lower than the other two groups. This may prove to be important if the relationship between cholesterol and hardening of the arteries is established. From the facts available, it would seem that a wisely selected vegetarian diet provides adequate nutrition.

My advice to all of you who are striving to live nature's way is to become 100% vegetarians, spurning milk and eggs, and open the door to the great health and happiness which awaits you.

In my book, Vegetarian Cookery, I have endeavoured to bring to the health-conscious public, menus which are both milk-free and egg-free and yet enhance daily living with epicurean delights.

It is my belief that everyone should be or become a " rawf o o d e r " , yet I have no quarrel with those who enjoy cooked delicacies providing the latter are free from taint of animal byproducts. One day these enlightened people will awaken to the fact that only in raw food will they receive the true essence of Life-giving qualities which nature has bestowed in each raw fruit or vegetable so lavishly prepared for them.

If you are a pseudo-vegetarian, begin to-day to realize the wealth of benefits your Creator has prepared for you when you dare to become a true vegetarian and live the Genesis way: *' Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." (Genesis 1: 29.)

And to all mothers and fathers-to-be, I urge that you cleanse yourselves and prepare to become the progenitors of a new race of healthier men and women, free from the taint of animalism and living as the Creator intended in the light of the coming Brotherhood of Man.

Both of Dr. Rotondi's books, Vegetarian Cookery—151 pages, hard cover, fully indexed, $3.00—and his latest, Your Vegetarian Baby—80 pages, soft cover, $2.00—are available by ordering direct from The Editor, Vegetarian News Digest (2146 Branden Street, Los Angeles 26, California, U.S.A.), to whom we are grateful for permission to reprint the above article from the Autumn, 1954, issue of VND. A copy of the Autumn issue may be had direct from the above address for 25 cents. Also available is Otto Carque's Vital Facts About Food, for $2.50 postpaid.

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THE FIRST DECADE: 1944-1954 Elsie B. Shrigley,

PRESIDENT, THE VEGAN SOCIETY

THE Vegan Society was 10 years old in November, 1954; thus it is now an appropriate time to look back and assess its achievements and to remember the personalities who have helped its evolution.

There have been non-dairy vegetarians through the centuries (for example, Socrates), but a letter written by Mr. Leslie Cross in the Vegetarian Messenger pointing out the ethics of non-dairy vegetarianism, and the correspondence that followed during 1943, roused the conscience of some lacto-vegetarians and led to the formation of The Vegan Society.

I gave up dairy produce in April, 1944, about the same time as Mr. Donald Watson and Mr. and Mrs. Allan Henderson. I remember that, at a vegetarian social club holiday at Minehead, in August, 1944, Mr. Watson and I discussed the necessity of coordinating the non-dairy vegetarians and decided to ask The Vegetarian Society if they would agree to the formation of a non-dairy group within the Society with a page of the Vegetarian News for news and views. This the Executive Committee was not prepared to do and so the first committee met at the Attic Club at the beginning of November, 1944, to discuss the name and formation of a new society—present were Mr. Donald Watson, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Henderson, Mr. Haffenden, Mrs. Elsie B. Shrigley and Mr. Paul Spencer with Mme. Pataleewa as an interested observer.

There was a list of suggested names for the new society, the word " vegan " was chosen because it was strong and short.

Mr. Donald Watson became the first Secretary and Editor. The first Vegan Bulletin was published by the end of November, 1944.

The first printed Vegan came out in the spring of 1946. The London Group was founded in July, 1945.

The first Annual General Meeting was held on November 15th, 1945. Mr. Donald Watson remained Secretary and Editor until the Annual General Meeting, 1946, when he became the first President of the Society. Mr. Allan Henderson then became the new Editor and Secretary. During this period the new Committee Members included Mr. Barry Green, Mrs. T. Rawls, Mr. Bernard Drake and later Mrs. M. Drake, Miss Daisy Maclachlan and Miss Amy Little. Mrs. Fay Henderson published her Vegan Recipes at this time and this was followed by a recipe pamphlet

by Mrs. M. Rawls.

The next President of the Society (1947) was Mr. William Collier. During this year the first rules of the Society were formulated. Dr. Weiner, Mr. Frank Mayo and Mr. Leslie Cross joined the Committee. The Committee had intensive week-ends of work during this period with its country Members. The post of 17

Secretary, Treasurer and Editor proved too exacting and so the work was divided: Mr. Bruce Litten became Secretary and Treasurer; Mr. Allan Henderson remained Editor for a time, until he was succeeded by Mrs. Sheila Johnstone.

Mr. Frank Mayo became President in 1949 and in 1950, the post of Secretary and Treasurer was divided with Mrs. H. Honeysett as Secretary and Mrs. Eve Rowland as Treasurer. Also the rules of the Society were revised and the object of the Society and the word " veganism " were clearly defined. Different conditions for Members and Associates were laid down. (Slight alterations and additions to the rules were passed at the A.G.M. in 1954) Mr. Frank Mayo died in 1951 and the Society lost a great President and vital personality. Mrs. Elsie B. Shrigley became the new President at the A.G.M., November, 1951.

In the same year Miss Vera Stanley Alder became Editor of The Vegan until 1953, when she decided to live abroad part of the year. Mr. John Heron, the present Editor, took over in May, 1953. An Editorial Board was formed in 1952 to help over an interim period. Mrs. Eve Rowlands resigned Treasurership and Mr. Leslie Warren succeeded her.

Committee Members have included: Mrs. L. Cross, Mr. Donald Cross, Mr. D. Burton, Miss Churchward, Mr. E. Hewlett, Mrs. K. Mayo, Mr. Alex Martin, Mr. Cameron James, Miss A. Ryerson, Miss Mabel Simmons; and up to date, Mrs. S. Coles, Miss C. Harvey, Mr. G. McLinley, Mr. A. Clark, Mr. J. Sanderson and Mrs. J. Arnaldi, who has very kindly lent her flat for committee meetings. It was decided to hold these in London to save excessive travelling.

During 1945-47, the Society had annual conferences with a purpose, to discuss milk substitutes, health and ethics with a number of speakers at each meeting. The Society has had also cookery demonstrations, dinners and socials. A Health Council was formed to put the health of vegans on a scientific basis and Dr. Frank Wokes has done very valuable work in this direction.

He has been helped by Dr. Sinclair of Oxford Nutritional Laboratory. The Society has had a stall at the Animals Fair since 1947 and has done valuable propaganda thereby. In the summer of 1954, the Society published a comprehensive Trade List which it is hoped will be followed by many more.

The Vegan Society is acknowledged as a national society as it has members all over the British Isles and abroad. It is affiliated to the I.V.U. and has taken part in the International Congresses since the war—in 1947, 1950 and 1953. Mr. Donald Watson gave an address on veganism at Wycliffe College in 1947, and this was published as a pamphlet. Mr. A. Henderson represented The Vegan Society in 1950, in Holland, and Mrs. M. Drake and Mrs. E . B. Shrigley were delegates in 1953, in Sweden, where a paper on the activities and ideals of the vegan was read and our literature distributed.

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Besides the London Group, groups were formed in Bristol, the Midlands and Yorkshire. In the new Constitution of 1950, they became Branches of the Society.

This history of the Society would not be complete without realizing the value of the work done during the past 10 years. It is not easy to found an ethical society. The first Committees were formed of individualists, all with high ideals but with divergent views on how to attain them. The Society crystallised its policy as it went along and has emerged in 1954 with a sound constitution defining the aim of the Society and the word " veganism ". It has an harmonious and hard working committee. The word " vegan " is now known and used internationally and in scientific societies.

At the beginning the Vegan Society was faced with antagonism from the vegetarian movement through misunderstandings. Now we work in harmony with the Vegetarian Society and the London Vegetarian Society and join with them and the I.V.U. in con. ferences at which humanitarian bodies discuss difficulties and policies.

The Vegan Society took part in a broadcast on " Vegetarianism " and aroused considerable interest.

Now well founded and established, the Society can look forward to ever greater vitality and expansion in the years to come.

THE VEGETARIAN BROADCAST Muriel Drake VEGANS and vegetarians alike will have heard Jenifer Wayne's broadcast on " Vegetarianism ", on November 26th, with mixed feelings, but at least it will have given all those who heard it an opportunity to consider whether they are justified in continuing to look on flesh foods either as a necessity of life or as ethically right.

It was unfortunate that the time devoted to the vegan aspect came first, for I would venture to suggest that it would have been better, from all points of view, to begin with vegetarianism and the fleshless diet rather than to plunge right away into the still more idealistic path which vegans tread. It probably meant that many who might otherwise have been quite interested and intrigued to learn something about veganism after listening to the way of the vegetarian, will have switched off without hearing much about either. However, let us look at the constructive side of the broadcast, for undoubtedly Jenifer Wayne had given it a great deal of thought, judging by her remarks at the beginning and in between the other speakers. She obviously tried to be as impartial as possible and to treat the subject from all angles.

Those who stated the case for veganism were our President, Mrs. E. B. Shrigley and two members of the committee who have vegan children—Mr. Leslie Cross and Mrs. Serena Coles. Mrs.

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Shrigley mentioned the various reasons why people adopt veganism in the first place—health, the ethical aspect and the spiritQal point of view. The ethical angle she had already stated by mentioning the different forms of cruelty involved and Mr. Cross linked up the ethical and spiritual aspects. H e believed that as far as possible we should be given freedom to live our lives in the way we wish to live them, according to our inward life and that we must grant freedom to others to live their lives as they wish to live them (here he stressed the fact that in the word " others" he included animals). He felt that the animals and ourselves were on this earth in order to evolve through experience to higher levels of living. When asked about the difficulty of extra sensitivity, he replied that he, as a vegan, must not let sensitivity break him down; he must be tempered and not broken through it.

Mrs. Coles ended with the reassuring note that vegans were definitely not out to convert everybody. It was an individual matter which must come from within one's own being, from one's • own reasoning with things. She said most emphatically: " Do not change your ways of living in a rapid way; do everything gradually and if you feel that the temptation is too great and you can't stop eating something—you want to go back to it—well, go back to it."

This article would be far too long if I gave details of the answers from the lacto-vegetarians—no doubt that will be done in the vegetarian journals—but I will just mention their names and their particular approach. Athletics and economics were ably dealt with by Mr. Cyril Oliver and Mr. Ronald Lightowler respectively. Dr. Bertrand Allinson put the case for elderly people who turned vegetarian late in life, and Mrs. Lynn Harris spoke for the younger generation. Mrs. Paul had quite a lot to say about vegetarian diet, especially the practice (which she deplored) of making a nut roast in the shape of a chicken.

The final note was struck by Dr. Frank Wokes, who has been responsible for the experiments and tests on vegans at Oxford.

Unfortunately (although of necessity through lack of time), the broadcast was only a small section of the sum total of remarks made at this speaker's interview with Jenifer Wayne, as it was with the others. Dr. Wokes was asked to concentrate mainly on fhe Oxford experiments to the exclusion of the ethical aspect and so as a result he spoke entirely from the scientific point of view. This does not, of course, consider veganism as a whole, and although Dr. Wokes put forward the view that economic necessity may compel us in the near future to draw nearer to the Eastern peoples as regards their much lower intake of animal protein—which, he added, " may not be such a bad thing for us after all"—yet the real reason why the majority of vegans adopt their particular way of life was not alluded to.

The ethical aspect puts a different emphasis on the whole idea of veganism, for the scientific viewpoint alone tends to lay 20

rather too much stress on the term "deficiency symptoms". Now it is realised that all vegans do not assimilate the protein they eat, but there are so many factors to be taken into consideration. It was, I think, unfortunate that the other factors were not mentioned in this part of the broadcast, as the half-hour ended on rather a negative note.

There is no need for us to end on a depressing note, for those who really have the urge from within to adopt a vegan diet (which should, let me emphasise, be done very gradually, to give the body a chance to adjust itself), will not be disheartened by the negative approach. Rather will they be encouraged to experiment themselves with the diet and learn how to adjust the body to a more idealistic way of living, so as to pave the way for future generations of vegans.

UNDERSTANDING Beatrice Fenner is a silken thread, Woven of love, and of love's fulfilment Through the joyous outpouring of itself.

Understanding is a golden flame That lights up darkened places— A completeness that, seeks ever to dispel emptiness.

Understanding asks naught but to spend itself endlessly Upon that which requires it— Demands naught save but to pour itself out In deep and boundless giving.

Yet Understanding, if it be truly such, Gives not alone for the pure joy of giving, Outrushing, and o'erspilling itself in shapeless ecstasy, But gives thoughtfully, with purpose, and in fixed design.

And, delicately sensing its destinations, The extent of its requirements, Carefully choosing the vestments it must wear.

The certain words to speak, It poises, listening for the call That bids it come on swift and happy feet.

Understanding is an awareness; At once a stillness, and a tumultuous song; A warmth, a tenderness, lofty places, Lowly and humble things; A prayer, a tear, round laughter—all in one.

Great moving sea, Born of the very need it seeks to fill, Serene outpouring of Infinity Itself, Gently yearning^forth to encompass all things And draw theminto one.

UNDERSTANDING

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NORTH AMERICAN TOUR John Heron WIFE and I have recently completed an extensive tour of North America in our own car. It was our honeymoon, a camping expedition and a business trip of three kinds: to recount it all would indeed consume more space than The Vegan can afford. However, I have made a few varied extracts from our travel notes and now present these, without excessive formality or introduction, to the indulgent reader.

MY

IN SALT LAKE CITY

We motored into Salt Lake City late at night and instantly formed an impression of a bright metropolis which—clean, orderly, with a spacious rectilineal plan and brilliantly illuminated modern elevations—exudes an air of righteous prosperity. The extraordinary fortitude, endurance and determination of the Mormon pioneers who settled in the valley in 1847, has become transmuted in the intervening century into an unseen force that permeates the physical and " psychic " structure of the city and whose presence is registered as an atmosphere quite unlike that of any other centre in the country. Here, however, vegetarian and health movements have gained but little ground. The dominant local religion*, the successful management of corporeal affairs by its adherents and the peculiar remoteness of the area—high in the Rocky Mountain chain between the desert and the Great Salt Lake to the west and northwest, and the beautiful Wasatch and Uinta Mountains to the east —have combined to afford but little opportunity for the sponsors of reformed dietetic habits to attain a hearing.

Nevertheless, a start has been made, for here through the services of a new friend, Hans Berhold, we were introduced to the Secretary and members of a vegetarian health club with the unusual name " Garden of Doers ". This embryonic association provides a focal point for all matters relating to diet and rational healing and inclines also to broad metaphysical and religious discussions in which the deeper side of the healthy life is touched. In the •Joseph Smith; the Mormon prophet, received for his followers, in 1833, a revelation designed as an aid to temporal salvation. Among general exhortations for wholesome and sober living there occurs a passage in which the flesh of animals is ordained by "the Lord" for the use of man "with thanksgiving." Despite the amendment that such food is to be used sparingly and preferably "only in times of winter, or of cold, or of famine," the basic sanction given in the prior clause tends on the one hand to invalidate the revelation in the minds of vegetarians and on the other to cause a certain prejudice against vegetarianism in the minds of Mormons. So in this matter we are implicated in an important issue which concerns the evaluation of religious inspiration by referring to its dietetic teachings; although, of course, these must be considered with many other aspects of a revelation in order truly to estimate its merit.

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home of the Secretary, Miss Jones, we spent an agreeable evening with the club; conversation ranged, fortunately, over a variety of subjects from food to philosophy, and the importance of veganism, with which our hosts had not yet become acquainted in full detail, was introduced. The Garden of Doers, though it has existed but a short time, has noble aims. It is virtually alone in its ideals in a peculiar and remote region of the country and consequently we hasten to wish it every possible success.

Here, also, Hans took us to the home of Fletch and Leola—Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Flesher—joint editors of Progressive Independent, a four-part, non-profit monthly publication whose purpose is " t o bring about an understanding and a feeling of brotherhood and peace between all races, creeds, nations and colours, through each having a full understanding of the others' beliefs, objectives, methods of reasoning, conditions, doctrines, etc., without destroying any other by force, that every man woman and child may come to a full realization that each is his brothers' and sisters' keeper, not their destroyer." The paper is an international compendium that includes, World Health Advocate, World Peace Advocate, General Welfare (western hemisphere edition) and Woman's Sphere —Her Destiny. For its pioneering spirit, its faithful reflection of true ideals and for its devotion to honesty and the pursuit of purpose, this publication can be strongly recommended. I notice that the World Health Advocate for July, 1954, includes Dr. Govindarajulu's brief but effective advocacy of veganism entitled " The Natural Food of Man." Fletch and Leola, after full, varied and prominent lives, married in 1949, and now live in a small cabin some miles from Salt Lake City up Emigration Canyon, whence the Mormon pioneers and explorers, after severe hardships during their great trek over the Rocky Mountains, emerged into Salt Lake Valley. In the clear atmosphere of this secluded canyon, yet with limited space, limited funds and inadequate printing machinery, the Fleshers devote themselves with faith, courage and persistence to the work which they know is theirs and thus reflect in a new and much more comprehensive mode the pioneer spirit of their forebears. Mormons by religious affiliation, yet of the most liberal kind, their purpose is not to proselytize any religious belief or denomination,, or any political or economic doctrine, over any other.

It seemed, as we sat between the cabin and the waters of Emigration Canyon, shaded by a grove of low trees from the brilliant afternoon sun, conversing on those themes which in their fullness belong to the future, that a germinal presence of the spirit of a new age—of which veganism shall surely be an integral part —was invoked in one of its earliest and remote outposts. Here again in the midst of the corrupted brilliance of our technocratic civilization the drama of " beginnings " is enacted—a drama with which, in another mode, the founders of the Vegan Society are undoubtedly familiar.

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GREEN AND GOLD

Some miles south of Reno, the road climbs high into the mountains, rises up to Mount Rose summit at 9,000 feet and then commences a winding descent towards the south. Halfway down we caught our first and most impressive view of California. Standing beside lofty pines and redwoods, we looked out far below upon the clear, deep blue waters of Lake Tahoe which lies over a mile high, calm and beautiful, among the towering Sierra Nevada. We rested here for a day, camping in a forest site above Emerald Bay and then commenced a day's drive through the Tahoe Valley and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada out into the Sacramento Valley, the broad level central area of the state.

The hot and dry, green and golden countryside—the grass is gold, the trees are green—is everywhere utilized by commercial organisation. Some 7,000,000 acres are irrigated by various modern projects, and in all with about one quarter of its area in farming land, California is largely an argicultural state. Field crops led by cotton, truck, garden and staple vegetables, rank first in value of crops raised; fruits and grapes second. Oranges are shipped throughout the year and their annual financial yield is greater than the output of the state's gold mines. Here most of the country's raisins are produced. We ourselves made calls in Sacramento, centre of an immensely fertile argicultural district where most of the sweet prunes in the United States are grown: in Fresno, of Fresno County, where more grapes and figs are raised than in any other American county; and then crossed the Diablo range to the Pacific coast.

D R . KATHARINE N I M M O . D.C., R.N.

On the very fringe of the seething productivity of this agricultural emporium, in the small coastal town of Oceano, which is separated from the ocean only by the rolling golden sand dunes, we sought out Dr. Katharine Nimmo, D.C., R.N. Outside her low, one-story home, a sign staked into the ground bore her name and the simple statement " Healing by Drugless Methods." This sign, in contrast to the feverish exploitation everywhere so dominant, seemed to claim another outpost for the values of restraint and saiiity.

An ardent humanitarian, Dr. Nimmo has been a vegan for about 16 years and engages in ceaseless correspondence with societies and individuals throughout the world in order to extend and promote the influence of humanitarian ideals. She writes a regular vegan column for The American Vegetarian-Hygienist and distributes our magazine and literature wherever possible. I was glad to thank personally a generous contributor to our library and privileged to speak with one whose life has been so wholeheartedly devoted to the humanitarian cause. Dr. Nimmo spoke optimistically about the slow, but noticeable increase in humanitarian, health 24

and peace movements in the world. She gave us an account of the vegetarian and hygienic movements in the United States and outlined the position of veganism. These matters, however, I shall take up independently towards the end of this article.

T o L o s ANGELES

After a delightful overnight stay, with a notebook filled with interesting and important names and addresses of vegans and others given us by Dr. Nimmo, we motored some 200 miles along the coast road to Los Angeles, " the metaphysical capital" of California. The city includes Hollywood and is continuous with many neighbouring communities: Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena and so on. The whole constitutes an immense sprawling mass that suffers from the disagreeable affliction of " s m o g " : the waste products of automobiles and recently constructed industrial undertakings are trapped within the ring of mountains that embrace the Los Angeles metropolitan area and combine with the interaction of natural elements to form a gaseous and noxious pall perceptible at all times as a veil that limits and obscures vision of the surrounding hills. Smarting eyes, minor afflictions and, some claim, graver disturbances are to be attributed to this phenomenon. The pleasure and interest of visiting Los Angeles was, physiologically speaking, somewhat vitiated by such a pervasive pollution of atmospheric conditions.

However, we were fortunate to have an invitation to stay in the hills near Tujunga some miles north of the city in a cabin belonging to Thurman Frick, a friend newly found at a meeting of the Los Angeles Faithist Group on the day of our arrival, and a vegetarian.

From this retreat, in a higher, clearer atmosphere, we were able to make periodic sallies into the metropolis.

D R . PIETRO ROTONDI, D.C., N.D.

On the recommendation of Dr. Nimmo, we three arranged to attend one of the Tuesday evening dinner parties given regularly

by Dr. Pietro Rotondi, a leading Los Angeles practitioner of natural methods of healing, at his home in Hollywood. At the appropriate time, and among agreeable company, we found ourselves enjoying a delectable vegan meal which the Doctor himself prepared and which he most generously served, with infectious joviality. Of Sicilian origin, Dr. Rotondi brings a Mediterranean flare to the vegan cuisine: at a later and more intimate dinner at his home, where he lives alone since his wife died, we realized again new and pleasurable possibilities in foods derived solely from the vegetable kingdom when these are prepared under the influence of a liberal and imaginative mind.

Carefree, individualistic, uncompromising on dietetic matters.

Dr. Rotondi's principal concern is to establish vegetarianism and natural wholesome ways of living. He has been a strict vegetarian since 1918, and has consistently advocated the same regime to 25

patients and inquirers. His buoyant temperament and well-filled frame cause the dietetically ignorant to accuse him of " cheating ".

Yet apart from honey, whose use he recommends, his kitchen utensils have been untouched by animal substances of any kind for over 30 years.

His basic advocacy is: " Live upon fruits, leafy vegetables, nuts, tubers, legumes and other vegetation; spurn animal substances, candy, nicotine and alcohol—for this is the Law which will redeem practically every living individual from all disease and trouble if he accepts and follows it with an open mind and without fear of opposition." And in essence his approach is religious: " We are here on earth for a purpose: to gain selfknowledge and self-mastery and to be of service to mankind.

Therefore it is useless for us to seek happiness within ourselves as well as with our neighbours and with nations and races, unless we first purify our bodies and minds by eating clean and healthgiving foods such as nature intended."

These quotations are from the introduction to Dr. Rotondi's Vegetarian Cookery. This, and another of his books entitled Your Vegetarian Baby, I have reviewed elsewhere in this issue. And we also have great pleasure in including an article by Dr. Rotondi himself.

HOLLYWOOD

It was, strangely enough, at Dr. Rotondi's that we received an invitation to lunch at Paramount Studios. Leaving the restaurant, where a glitter of stars from the Hollywood heaven acknowledge the need for nourishment, we strolled round the grounds and for some time watched the new Vistavision cameras shooting a scene from Lucie Gallante, starring Jane Wyman. A strange spectacle of technics, confusion and corrupted values; the high-powered Hollywood entertainment machine skates too much upon the surface of our civilization to call forth any sustaining interest.

In relation to our particular interests, it is sufficient to say in passing that because of the desirability of prolonging their strength and vigour, beauty of shape and feature as far as possible into middle age (and beyond), many stars have become followers of the relatively enlightened, but omnivoristic teachings of dietician Gayelord Hauser. In justice to Hauser, it must be said that apart from his approbation of flesh-eating, his books and articles have reached thousands who might otherwise have never heard of the importance of whole-grain cereals, raw sugar, fruit and vegetable juices, salads and so on.

AROUND ESCONDIDO

Escondido, in the heart of San Diego County, is the health mecca of southern California. At an average elevation of 700 feet, above and beyond the occasional coastal fogs, it lies among low rolling hills that are midway between the Pacific coast and the 26

wooded mountain ranges of Palomar, Cuyamaca and Laguna. It is famed for its equable sub-tropical climate, nearly ideal temperature range, abundant sunshine and exceedingly fertile soils. Spread out upon the floor of a hidden valley it overflows the encircling deep green hillsides where avocado and citrus orchards abound, and dissolves into undulating countryside where occasional villas blink beneath a brilliant sun.

Here we visited Dr. Bernard Jensen's Hidden Valley Health Ranch. This gracious ranch house at one time belonged to Lord Somerville. We found it hidden in the hills at the end of a winding road a few miles north-east of Escondido, overlooking a long shallow valley. Secluded in a healthful, peaceful atmosphere, vacationers and patients may find recreation and recovery in ideal surroundings. From the patio of the villa, we looked across to orchards of oranges and grapefruits and several acres of vegetables.

All organically grown, these foods combine—as in most places of this kind—with dairy products to form the dietary regime.

It was interesting, and agreeable, to see round a Californian nature cure resort. Dr. Jensen has a wide experience in his profession and has made a particular study of iridology. He asked to be remembered through us to his friends and acquaintances in this country. And as we talked, it was clear, that although veganism plays no part in his particular approach, he is making a significant contribution to the science and art of physical well-being.

We passed another of Escondido's celebrated health resorts, Dr. James McCeachen's " Hygienic Haven"—where a vegan regime is adopted—on the way to Pretoria Valley Ranch, a Nutritional Research Foundation directed by Martin Pretorius. We arrived at Pretoria Valley towards the end of the afternoon. Our gracious hostess served us with mint tea and carob cake and explained that in essence the Foundation desired to establish a nucleus for eliminating wars, for founding a new way of life by cultivating a happy, free spirit in a pure body.

Sociologically of great importance, this undertaking is satis.factorily advancing. A large tract of land of variegated topography has been purchased: Escondido was chosen for the site because of its healthful climate and the possibility of growing there a great variety of fruits and vegetables the year round. An agricultural programme utilizing organically composted soils is under way.

Several pleasing Spanish style villas with adobe bricks and redtiled roofs have been built on, and satisfactorily integrated with, the crests and hillsides of the property. Martin Pretorius's home —simple, elegant—on an elevated site, commands a sweeping view across to distant mountains.

Pretoria • Valley Ranch has no religious affiliation, nor is it a sanitarium, for no treatment of any kind is given. It is a centre for nutritional research, for educating old and young on the principles of better nutrition and healthful living, a pleasure resort 27

for those on holiday, and a community. With respect to the last, a $2,000 donation confers life-time membership on husband and wife and entitles them to build their home on the Ranch, or to choose a spacious lot in the " Life-time Trailer (Caravan) Park ", and also to avail themselves of the organically grown foods. There is no dietetic obligation imposed on members, but of course vegetarianism is the norm.

The Ranch does not offer to its members subsistence in return for employment, but a place in which to retire, study, vacation, or use as a home while working in the outside world. A further aspect of the project is a separate commercial corporation that will eventually construct a motel, restaurant, commercial trailer park, service station, lunch counter and sports ground on a corner of the property naturally screened by a low hill from the residential area. In this way it is hoped to attract those in the world to the centre that they may thus become acquainted with the principles which it represents.

Pretoria Valley is undoubtedly important since, on a basis of sound nutritional principles—good soil, good food, good health— implemented under competent and thorough direction, it represents an interesting phase in what may well be the emergence of a new form of social organization, the keynote of which, perhaps, will be " community".

Indeed, standing in this cerulean climate, freshened by a soft breeze which, we were told, always wafts down the valley and through the orchards from the not too distant ocean, amidst a profusion of organic vegetation and in the presence of those made happy by a wholesome life in beautiful surroundings, we experienced what paradoxically can only be called a proleptic nostalgia for a mode of living yet to come upon this earth, and which is perhaps difficult for even the most imaginative of us to conceive in all its fullness.

A vegan would do well to settle near Escondido—" the avocado capital of the world." The avocado, rich in fat and protein, is one of the most important crops in the county and occupies 4,000 acres in the neighbourhood of the town alone. The fuerte variety is the most important: fuertes are harvested during the late autumn, winter and spring seasons. In and around Escondido' there are also nearly 1,000 acres of walnuts, and, of course, oranges and lemons constitute the other principal tree crops.

But what about organic cultivation? A mile out of town, along Highway 395, we drew up at a large stall with a painted sign: " Phil's Organic Products ". Here Mr. and Mrs. Phil Arena sell to the public a rich harvest from many acres of organic produce.

Among the organically grown foods heaped on the tables and shelves there were corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beets, beet greens, turnips, onions, celery, asparagus, kale, lettuce, rodan, dandelions, red and green chard, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, grapes, quince, peaches, plums, persimmons, apples, pears, figs, dates, prunes, raisins and apricots. There can be few places where 28

such an abundant variety of organic produce can be obtained.

Looking at this overflow from the Escondido cornucopia, I thought of those of us in England who would appreciate a comprehensive dietary of correctly grown food!

NOT FOR THE SCEPTIC

Before entering San Diego, we made a detour up the " Highway of the Stars " to Palomar Mountain. Here we pitched our tent in a spacious cedar grove for two days and visited the observatory on the summit where the 200" Hale Telescope is housed.

On our way down the mountain, after several miles of hairpin turns, we passed a driveway entrance beside which stood a large sigh: " A D A M S K I " . George Adamski, the co-author of Flying Saucers Have Landed (published in this country by Werner Laurie), was at home supervising construction work on his new property.

Although quite unexpected, we sat for over two and a half hours on a shaded patio cut out of the hillside with our sincere and earnest host who told us of his more recent experiences of the flying saucers.

He informed us that since the publication of his first book he has travelled in space-craft and has spoken in English with their occupants who, it seems, are extra-terrestrial beings, dwellers on another sphere where a higher philosophy and mode of life prevail.

Their religion, he said, is manifest in their daily lives in universal forms of government, in universal peace, in true harmlessness and in vegetarianism. Masters and manipulators of the ceaseless flux of cosmic forces that interpenetrate their sphere, they live perpetually in the present moment, in the creative " n o w " , where time is absorbed in a realization of, and atonement with, Eternal Presence.

Naturally, to the sceptic, this all seems too good to be true. But despite the many and varied problems which appertain to elucidating the precise origin and modes of manifestation of the flying saucers, there have been too many independent, responsible yet corroborative reports of their presence within the atmosphere of this earth for the unprejudiced to doubt their existence, whatever the more detailed implications of this fact may be.

BAJA CALIFORNIA

After a brief stay in San Diego, where we received delightful hospitality from Mrs. Elizabeth Griffin, also a generous contributor to our library, we took the ferry to Coronado Island and the Silver Strand, a long narrow peninsula running parallel with the coast.

We picnicked on the sand looking out over the Pacific, and a short time later we drove into the Mexican border town of Tijuana.

With streets cluttered with overloaded and over-elaborated stores and stalls, seething with avaricious vendors of every kind of product that is " typically Mexican "; Tijuana has prostituted itself to the curiosity and spending power of American sightseers. In strong contrast, however, is the clean, clear atmosphere and 29

appearance of the desert-mountain country through which we passed on the eastward journey to Tecate. This impressive landscape, everywhere coruscated with outcropping boulders, is evocative of an obscure, profound past.

Rancho la Puerta nestles against a low range of mountains some five miles south of the Mexico-California border near Tecate, Baja California. It is the home of the School of Scientific Living, the Essene School of Life, the Academia de Folosofia: a conglomerate of activities, including a health resort, a school and a publishing company, personally supervised by Professor Edmond Bordeaux Szekely.

We swung off the highway under an arched sign and drove into the ranch where cream-coloured guest cabins and cottages, the lecture room and museum, the library, dining halls, the bake house and other buildings are dotted informally, yet quite attractively, among the sloping vineyards. After joining with guests at supper in the agreeable cafeteria-style dining room, we walked around the solarium, gymnasium and swimming pool towards the professor's house, where, in his book-lined study and office, he told us details of his work.

He chose to settle near Tecate in 1938 since, at an altitude of 2,000 feet, there is here a year-round, dry, mild, near-Mediterranean climate. There were, at the time of our visit, over 200 people at Rancho la Puerta, including 117 patients attending for medical reasons, 60 co-operative members and 70 Mexican workers.

O n an average, two-thirds of the guests come for treatment, a smaller fraction for study. The kernel of the treatment, which includes carefully supervised diet, sun, air and, water therapy, is the organic or bio-chemical grape cure. Grape juice is taken between meals, twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

For those who wish to study, the aim is to provide the best and most authoritative books in the particular field to which the student is attracted; the school is non-sectarian, all philosophies and movements are discussed. The essence of Professor Szekely's approach is described by him as " omnilateral optimology": the science of combining the best elements in diverse ways of healthy living and creative thinking. The word " Essene " is used to express the aim of synthesis and to imply that the guiding principles of the school are the values and ideas of the ancient Essene Communities—as reconstructed and interpreted, be it noted, by Professor Szekely.

The dietetic schemes are not vegan. Organic wild honey, acidophilus milk and cheese are integral parts of the menus. Four neighbouring farms, maintained by the School, provide these and organically grown grapes, wheat and vegetables. Veganism is perhaps too advanced for this and other institutions that have so frequently to deal with the ailing meat-eater.

Short, with Roman features and a prominent rotundity. Professor Szekely exudes a suave and genial optimism which, one 30

senses, has been cultivated upon the foundation of an inherited good nature by an active disciplined and far-reaching intellect.

His great contribution to naturopathy is that he has raised it somewhat from the materialistic plane on which it only too often drearily languishes, and integrated it with philosophical and cultural values derived from his wide studies and deep interest in archaeology. For a practical example, at each meal time the La Puerto News is distributed. Each thrice daily issue contains the essential teachings of some great philosopher, suggestions for reading and daily activities, and a list of foods served outlining their specific values and effects. In the evenings there are recorded concerts of classical music, Esperanto study groups, art classes; also lectures on philosophy, psychology, archaeology and topics of current interest.

A N EARLY EXPERIMENT

We left Baja California and re-entered the United States in order to establish contacts in Arizona and Colorado. Our route, however, soon took us south again down the valley of the Rio Grande to Las Cruces in New Mexico. Here we called upon a kind and elderly lady of about 80 years of age—Mrs. Stoes—whose address we had been given in California, and who was able to tell us of an interesting experiment in community living which was commenced in 1885.

Our hostess had been a personal friend of the wife of the founder, Dr. J. B. Newbrough, who, in 1881, received a remarkable revelation entitled " Oahspe ". Acting upon certain exhortations contained in this book, Dr. Newbrough and a group of friends chose a site at Dona Ana, near Las Cruces. Here they brought unwanted infants from New Orleans, Kansas City and other centres and founded a children's colony in order to raise a nobler and more spiritual race of men and women. The conditions were, first, that no animal food save honey was ever to be used on any part of the property, except milk for children under five years of age; second, that all adults, except invalids, should have but two meals per day of 24 hours; third, that there should be not less than five new adoptions of orphans every year.

The venture was joined by a pioneer of fasting, Dr. S. Tanner.

The members of the colony attributed their health to the merits of diet and fasting; they also believed in the therapeutic power of the earth's magnetism and used the healing rays of the sun.

According to Mrs. Stoes, they took excellent care of the children, who were both healthy and happy. Dr. Newbrough died in 1891. and the colony was finally disbanded in 1906, since the site proved too difficult for his successors to turn to financial advantage.

On the basis of the material given her by her friend, Mrs. Stoes has written a highly interesting and sympathetic account of the colony, its purpose, its founding and subsequent history. Unfortunately this has not yet been printed. The story would be of particular interest to vegans, not only because of the high idealism, 31

courage and great sacrifice implicit in the venture, but also because there has not since, to my knowledge, been any other experiment in community living of which a vegan (or rather a very near vegan) diet has been an integral part.

We visited the site, on a large bend in the Rio Grande, shortly before sunset. The Fraternum for adults is now a crumbling adobe ruin whose remaining rooms are inhabited by Mexican " wetbacks "—cheap labour for the cotton farm that occupies the original area of the colony. The large refectory of the children's house once full of flowers, singing birds and the laughter of orphan children is piled with bales of hay. Faced with these remains and the realization that their deeply significant story is almost totally unknown to the world, there was but one question to ask: was the attempt, a half century ago, premature or made in vain? My own belief is that an ideal fully applied if only for a short period will create a latent force that will remain as a hidden nucleus for a later and more comprehensive manifestation in more auspicious circumstances. Hence the occult importance of any obscure and apparently extreme pioneering effort, if it is an expression of true light.

VEGANISM IN THE UNITED STATES

On the east coast once again, this time in New York, I spoke to Mr. Symon Gould of the Health Guild, shortly before our return to England. He assisted in forming the original figure for the number of vegetarians in the United States. It is estimated that there are some 3,000,000. This figure includes Theosophists, 7th Day Adventists, Unity Christians and members of other religious groups that include vegetarianism in their teachings. Of organised vegetarians, those who have formed themselves into vegetarian societies as such, there are perhaps only from 3,000 to 4,000.

Vegans are very few and far between. Although the exact number would be difficult to obtain, there are probably under 1,000. And as Dr. Nimmo pointed out, they are scattered over a large continent and unco-ordinated. There appears to be no American Vegan Society, active and organised, although I understand that at one point a move was made to found one.

It should be noted that American vegetarian papers and journals are, to put it crudely, very pro-vegan. We do not find in their pages many articles about protein and deficiencies (probably owing to the vigorous propaganda of that active branch of the hygienic movement that excludes all dairy products for health reasons); but we do find, for example, the full truth about dairy farming openly publicised and acknowledged. Veganism is subsumed within the vegetarian movement as a whole; it is seen to be an • upper offshoot of the one central tree. Thus, in one article I see it written that " the ethical vegetarian is one of the highest principles and morals and the highest of these is the vegan." In another: " the ' vegan' vegetarians . . . comprise the only group 32

that can be correctly termed ' t r u e ' vegetarians as the other groups . . . compromise with society in varying degrees." And so on.

This free acceptance of the idea of veganism in the vegetarian press is due no doubt to the hard work and influence of Dr. Nimmo and other American vegans and to the spread of our journal across the Atlantic.

The American vegetarian movement as a whole is naturally, at this stage, amorphous and polyglot: a variety of principles and concepts interfuse, commingle and support each other. In this fluidic condition it is difficult to see how veganism is progressing and whether it will emerge, as it has done in this much smaller country, with a representative body to elucidate and expound its teachings and experiences.

One thing is certain, an excellent opportunity will occur at the second National Vegetarian Convention to be held at Lee's Summit, Missouri, this year. At the first National Convention held at Lake Geneva, Illinois, in 1949, twenty aims and objects of the total movement were defined. All these were excellent and desirable. But may I suggest that in the coming Convention, " non-dairy " delegates recommend an addition: the formation of a representative body to act as a focal point for those who, whether for spiritual, humanitarian or health reasons, exclude all animal products from their way of life. In choosing a name (" veganism " need not necessarily be adopted) for this group—which would surely be of great support and encouragement for those in the United States who have adopted advanced reforms—a word or words sufficiently comprehensive to cover all approaches would be desirable.

The materialistic cycle at present in full swing on the North American continent, as elsewhere, is undoubtedly ephemeral. With respect to the far distant future at any rate this is surely a land where a true way of life, acknowledging in the highest sense the interaction of the unseen and the seen, of heaven and earth, will manifest in great beauty and fullness. But to this end there is much work to be done. Vegetarianism in all its phases has a long way to go. Perhaps in a few hundred years . . ? Meanwhile, in this very dawn of dawn, the Vegan Society continues to uphold an advanced ideal, and at the end of its first decade extends with renewed warmth the hand of greeting and of friendship to its North American friends.

OBITUARY Miss Annette Mills passed away on Monday morning, January 10th, 1955, not having recovered consciousness from the operation that took place the previous week. She was an enthusiastic vegetarian of several years' standing and was most sympathetically attuned to the vegan way of life. Her TV broadcasts were an inspiration to thousands of children—and grown-ups.

She undoubtedly had a living message of love towards all creatures to pass on to those with responsive understanding.

M.E.D.

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VEGAN COMMODITIES Christina Harvey All products mentioned below are vegan unless otherwise stated.

A v e r y ' s Vermicelli Ltd.

Vermicelli and Noodles (unless they bear the prefix " e g g " ) , Macaroni, Spaghetti, Semolina.

D u l c e t Confectionery Ltd.

Some of their sweets which were vegan now contain butter unfortunately. However, the following still meet vegan requirements: — Fine Barley Drops, Extra Fruit Lollies, Fine Herbal Pieces, Sky Mints, Fine Tropical Fruits, Fine Glucose Fruits, Dessert Fruits, Cut Fruit Rock.

H . J. G r e e n Si Co., Ltd.

Carmelle, a new dessert sweet, contains sugar, glucose, agaragar, sodium phosphate, colouring and flavouring.

Kelloggs

Corn Flakes, All-Bran, Rice Krispies, Pep Bran Flakes, Wheat Flakes, Sugar Frosted Flakes, Wheat Krumbles (only available in America). We are even assured that the glue used in packing is obtained from purely vegetable matter!

L o n d o n Health C e n t r e

All fruitarian cakes except Gingernut Bar and " Fruit and Nut Snack " (pink label) contain honey.

W . a n d H . Marriage 8C Sons.

Wholemeal and White Flours, Wheat Embryo. Vegans will be glad to know that Wheat Embryo is entirely unprocessed.

Munich Ltd.

Munch biscuits contain animal fat. We understand that they could be made equally well with vegetable margarine and negotiations are being made.

W . Pre-wett Ltd.

Wholemeal Sweet Biscuits (Barbados Sugar, Glucose, Fat, Compost Wholemeal 100% Flour, Syrup).

Wholemeal Unsweetened Biscuits (Compost Wholemeal 100% Flour, Fat, Malt extract).

Ginger Nuts (Syrup, Ground Ginger, Compost Wholemeal 100% Flour, Barbados Sugar). Wholemeal Cookies contain honey.

Q u a k e r O a t s Ltd.

Sugar Puffs contain honey.

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Shearns Bread. The tins are greased with vegetable fat.

Soups, Nutmeats and Puddings served in the restaurant remain vegan. A new delicacy is the Nutveete Meatless Sausage. The ingredients are rusks, soya granules, vegetable fats, wheat protein, Brewers' Yeast, Cashew or Arachio nuts, and savoury herbs. The sausages even have an edible skin made from seaweed. They are packed in 17-oz. tins containing eight sausages in suenut, ready for frying or grilling. A tin costs 2/9.

Burleson Ltd.

Some of their toilet preparations now contain bees* wax.

The following products remain vegan: — Almond Blossom Foundation, Mayfair Liquid Foundation, Hand Lotion, Magnolia Skin Tonic, Skin Freshener. Antiviray (sunscreening) Lotion, Petal Dew Foundation, Rejuvenating Plastic Mask.

McCIinton Ltd.

Colleen and Barilla Soaps are now made entirely of vegetable matter.

Edgar J. Saxon Ltd.

Integrity Biscuits may now be added to their list of other vegan products.

Any questions regarding commodities will be gladly received and answered by: Christina Harvey, , Hornsey Rise, London, N.19.

A VEGAN SOCIETY IMPRINT The Society wishes in the near future to have a block made of an imprint or symbol suitable for use on vegan pamphlets and Society literature and possibly also on the cover of The Vegan.

A design, in black and white, that can, if necessary, stand considerable reduction, is required. Our members are invited to submit ideas, sketches or finished drawings. An original and appropriate symbol for the ideals of veganism is not easy to conceive in simple and uncomplicated pictorial form. You perhaps have the right idea. Therefore send it along to the Editor.

It has been so far suggested that the most appropriate symbol would be an equilateral triangle; symbolizing the threefold approach to veganism of the humanitarian, the hygienist or the spiritual seeker (love, power, wisdom; or emotions, will and mind).

And within this triangle an animal, a man and a tree, elaborating the symbolism and also suggesting a proper relationship between the three kingdoms of living nature. Comments on this conception would be welcome.

35

SIMPLE A N D USEFUL RECIPES Mabel

Simmons

HAZELNUT PASTE 2 tablespoonfuls milled nuts. brown gravy.

1 tablespoonful fresh brown bread- 1 oz. margarine. crumbs.

Celery salt.

1 small onion.

Mix nuts, crumbs, celery salt together. Cut onion finely, fry golden brown, sprinkle over a little sage. Place onion on top of mixture, mix into soft dough, with gravy, form into small balls.

Place parsley on top of each.

Baked cashew nuts or Brazils make a good flavoured paste.

T O M A T O AND W A L N U T PASTE 1 tablespoonful milled walnuts.

H tablespoonful fresh brown breadcrumbs.

1 oz. margarine.

1 dessertspoonful chopped parsley.

1 large tomato.

Seasoning.

Mix nuts, crumbs, parsley, seasoning together. Peel tomato, fry until soft, pour over mixture, mix into soft dough. Form into small rolls, garnish with parsley.

LENTIL PASTE 1 lb. lentils.

Seasoning.

Sage.

1 small onion.

1 oz. margarine.

Cook lentils, press through sieve, add onion cut finely and fried, seasoning, sage sprinkled over onion. Mix all well together, form into balls. Garnish with small piece of tomato.

YEASTREL OR MARMITE PASTE 2 oz. cashew nut butter.

2 oz. margarine.

1 oz. Yeastrel or Marmite.

Cream nut butter and margarine, mix in Yeastrel. Put mixture into jar. This paste keeps for several weeks.

SOYA FLOUR BISCUITS 6 oz. wholemeal 3 oz. margarine.

2 oz. soya flour.

flour.

Celery salt.

Water.

Mix flours together, rub in margarine, mix into stiff dough.

Roll out, cut into circles, prick with fork, bake in hot oven seven or ten minutes.

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WHOLEMEAL GINGER SNAPS i 1 1 1

lb. wholemeal flour. teaspoon baking powder. oz. soft brown sugar. oz. nutter.

2 tablespoons treacle.

1 teaspoon ground ginger.

Water.

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar, ginger together, rub in nutter, stir in treacle, mix to a firm dough, roll out, cut into rounds, prick with fork. Bake in slow oven 30 minutes.

TENTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Held at 50, Gloucester Place, London, on Saturday, November 20th, at 2.30 p.m., with Mrs. E. B. Shrigley in the chair. There was the ordinary business of the meeting and valuable suggestions and observations were made by the members. The A.G.M. finished with a discussion on the health of vegans, especially the results of the recent investigation. Dr. Frank Wokes and Dr. Pickard were present to answer questions.

After refreshments there were pianoforte solos and songs from Miss Alva Wood and Mr. Stanley Brown, and recitations by Miss Christina Harvey. This was all greatly enjoyed and brought a successful meeting to a delightful close.

ANNUAL REPORT O F THE VEGAN SOCIETY (Year ending September 30th, 1954) The Executive Committee is pleased to report that there has been steady work and progress through the year. Members have shown great enthusiasm and interest in their Society: this is shown by the correspondence received by the President, Secretary and Editor.

Executive Committee Meetings There have been six Committee Meetings, each taking about five hours on a Saturday. Good, intensive and valuable work is done, especially as it is a Specialist Committee with Members responsible for advertising, Baby and Child Bureau, Health Council, Recipes and Food; apart from the Chairman, the Secretary, Treasurer and Editor.

Hie Executive Committee wish to thank Mr. and Mrs. D. Arnaldi for the loan of their flat for the meetings.

Mr. D. Cross and Mr. G. McGinley had to resign from the Committee" and we thank them for all that they have done for the Society.

The 9th Annual General Meeting This was held on November 7th, 1953, at the Friends Meeting House; and was followed by tea and interesting slides of Sweden by Mr. Almgren, Assistant Manager of the Swedish Travel Bureau.

Health Investigation Twelve members of the Vegan Society have been to Oxford for tests to help in the investigation of the health of vegans. The results have been tabulated and form valuable statistics. We are indebted to Dr. Frank Wokes and Dr. Sinclair and their assistants for all the work they have done in connection with this research.

Commodities Miss Christina Harvey has continued to do phenomenal work investigating foods, materials and commodities. This has culminated in the publication of the 1st Trade List which has proved so popular. The Society tenders its grateful thanks to Miss Harvey for her very valuable work.

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The Vegan There have been three copies of The Vegan this year, Spring, Autumn and Winter (delayed until 1955). There were not sufficient funds to publish both the Summer Vegan and the Trade List, which was considered important.

Mr. Gordon McGinley resigned from the Editorial Board, and his place was taken by Mr. Antony Clark.

The Society wish to thank Mr. Heron for his admirable work as Editor.

Round Table Conferences There have been two Round Table Conferences this year in March and September, organised by the International Vegetarian Union, The Vegetarian Society and The London Vegetarian Society. Representatives of many Humanitarian Societies attended, including The Vegan Society. The Humanitarian Way of Life was discussed in order to attain a deeper understanding of all points of view.

International Congress of Animal Welfare The Congress was held in May, and 500 delegates represented SO countries. The Vegan Society was represented by Mrs. E. B. Shrigley, Mrs. M. Drake, Mrs. S. Coles and Mr. R. Cross. Mr. L. Cross read the address of The Vegan Society which he had mainly written. Copies of the address, The Vegan and other literature, were distributed and aroused great interest.

Dance The Vegan Society held a joint dance with The Vegetarian Social Club on April 24th, 1954, at which The Vesan Society was responsible for the refreshments. It was a great success.

Abroad The Vegan Society and the vegan philosophy have been publicised in Indian, Japanese and American papers.

Branches There are four Branches of the The Vegan Society in England: Bristol, the Midlands, Yorkshire and London. These have done steady good work with meetings and social events.

Animals' Fair The London Group organised the Vegan Stall at the Animals' Fair in November, 1953. The profit was not so large as previous years but a great deal of propaganda was given out in talks with interested enquirers.

Membership The membership of the Society remains about the same as last year.

However, we look forward with confidence to an extension of the influence pf veganism and an increase in membership.

ELSIE B. SHRIGLEY (President).

HILDA HONEYSETT (Secretary).

N.B.—The Treasurer's Report and Statement of Accounts will be included in the next issue of The Vegan.

T H E VEGAN T R A D E LIST This remarkable and comprehensive list of vegan products of all kinds— foods, confectionery, drinks, remedies, toilet preparations and cosmetics, household products and sundry other items—that has been compiled after extensive research by Miss Christina Harvey, is a thorough guide to safe shopping, not only for vegans but for vegetarians, food reformers and nature-cure enthusiasts. See that you introduce a copy to your friends as soon as possible; and ask your Health Food Store to provide a valuable service for their customers by ordering several copies to have for sale and on display. Write now for several copies for distribution: they are obtainable at 1/3 each, post free, from the Hon. Secretary, The Vegan Society, 38 Stane Way, Ewell, Surrey.

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BOOK REVIEWS Vegetarian Cookery, by Dr. Pietro Rotondi, D. C. Willing Publishing Co., Los Angeles, 1942, $3.00.

Now in its second edition (1948), this book contains over 450 recipes listed under such headings as: bread and rolls, beverages, cakes, cake fillings, cocktails, confections, cookies, entrdes, frostings, gravies, ice cream and sherbets, muffins and gems, pies, puddings and desserts, relishes, salads, fruit and vegetable combinations, raw vegetable combinations, cooked vegetable combinations, salad dressings, sauces for entries, sauces for desserts, soups, vegetables. Not one of these recipes contains dairy products or eggs. Of "animal" foods, only honey occurs in a few of the cakes and confections. Substitution here, of course, is easy. Herbs—savories, aromatics and spices—are freely used. The only foods that are not readily available in England are avocado, squash, corn and egg plant. Charts on vitamins, laxative foods, herbs, flavours, weights and measures, substitutions and acid and alkaline foods are helpful and informative. For its comprehensiveness, imagination, original and wholesome combinations, but above all, for its refreshing freedom from the use of milk and eggs, I do not hesitate strongly to recommend this cookery book to all vegans and vegetarians in this country.

Your Vegetarian Baby, by the same author and from the same company at $2.00, was first published this year. Here is a booklet of 75 pages fearlessly advocating a true vegetarian diet—no flesh, fish, fowl, dairy products or eggs—for mother and new-born child. Dr. Rotondi wisely perceives the deep relationship between true vegetarianism and man's spiritual destiny; and he has here written what is, in essence, a religious plea and the outline of a practical programme for a thorough regeneration of all that attends the conception, gestation and raising of children. Parenthood, pregnancy, infancy, childhood and adolescence are dealt with in one or more of their various aspects: spiritual, psychological, nutritional, practical and so on.

I am not competent to judge upon the various recommendations given, but the nutritional regime for children, which is vegan except for the inclusion of honey, is, I know, supported by the author's experience as a naturopathic adviser. Hence this booklet, though perhaps containing insufficient detail and elaboration, will be of particular interest to vegan mothers or mothersto-be in this country. I do not think the climatic and sociological differences between this country and California seriously qualify the basic theme of "true vegetarianism."

Complete Vegetarian Recipe Book, by Ivan Baker, G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., London, 1954, 9/6 net.

"Vegetarian diet excludes all fish, flesh and fowl. Every other kind of food is used in the preparation of vegetarian dishes." It is a great pity that the connotation of the word "vegetarian" has assumed such a rigid crystallization as is suggested by these words that open the preface to Mr. Baker's recipe book. Nevertheless, such leniency undoubtedly attracts those who eat meat and simplifies their change-over problems: it is not for us to judge or condemn. Vegans, however, should be informed that this is very definitely a lacto-ovo-vegetarian recipe book. They would have to engage in much substitution, dodging and patching in order to avail themselves of the great majority of the recipes. And however much we may acknowledge the purpose and value of this comprehensive range of dishes in a world where semi-vegetarianism is itself a comparatively obscure movement, it is our particular responsibility to insist, tactfully, that such a liberal inclusion of eggs and dairy products glosses over all that is involved in their largescale production. A delicate situation: we respect Mr. Baker's achievement, yet we give our evaluation particularly for the sake of those who feel inspired to share our point of view.

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Self Health, by Peter Esslemont, J. E. Esslemont Ltd., Aberdeen, 1950,

2/-.

This is a pocket compendium of 64 pages on what its 84 years old author considers to be the requirements of health.

Among other aspects of physical well-being, the teachings and systems of Horace Fletcher, J. F. Muller, Dr. Jackson, Emile Cou6 are reviewed and interwoven with a highly individualistic range of quotations from Burns, Gladstone, Belloc, Dean Swift, Wesley and others! The whole is knit together by the nutty, homely style of the author and by the many pertinent observations of his vigorous consciousness. Quite frankly I enjoy this health book not only because practically all the recommendations it contains are sound, but also because it is decidedly colourful. Much that is written on health tends to be rather bare and sparse—the rigour of a new land before the culture and civilization that is to appear thereon has been evolved. Mr. Esslemont is not wholly on the new land: he does not specifically advocate vegetarianism, but he has, nevertheless, an innate understanding of the philosophy and practice of the healthy life, and in this respect he writes for the future with the refreshing zest of one who is steeped in that capacity for proverb, wit and pungent comment so typical of the past. His book also includes a Children's Corner and an interesting review of the work of the great nineteenth century reformer, Sir Edwin Chadwick. Of great importance is his keen realization of the power of the mind (positive, optimistic thinking), the state of the emotions (a calm, cheerful and friendly outlook) and the application of the will (energetic, constructive and altruistic activity) in maintaining health.

It is a pity, however, that apart from general exhortations to eat moderately of simple food and to eat some hard, some bulky and some raw food, he does not go in sufficient detail into the dietetic basis of health; nor does he warn against the insidious effects on health of the devitalized, demineralized and chemically doctored foods by which we are all nowadays surrounded. But taking these further and very important factors into account, it is certainly true as Mr. Esslemont stresses, that health can only be continuously applied by ourselves.

Food for the Golden Age, by Frank Wilson, The C. W. Daniel Co., Ltd., 1954, 21/- net.

There is a vigorous electrifying tension underlying the style of this book that speaks of knowledge, experience' and vision. The author, one senses, has truly seen—through many years among the native races on the island of Mauritius and through much reflection upon and study of the habits of civilized nations—that, as Professor Ehret once wrote, "life is a tragedy of nutrition." Here is a thorough review of the great harm wrought in our lives, by the consumption of animal flesh, of refined and chemically poisoned foods; by the exploitation and subsequent deterioration of our soils; and by other allied evils of our day. Mr. Wilson reasons from the facts of comparative anatomy to establish the natural diet of man; he then suggests an explanation for early man's deviation from this diet, and after a long and detailed analysis of all that this and later deviations of food preparation and production imply, advocates the adoption of a balanced vegetarian dietary of natural whole foods.

This is not in the ordinary style of such works. An inner emotional pith secures our sympathy for the virile writing. And interwoven with the main theme of dietary deviation, there is a mass of highly educative information of great interest that is frequently built round original and stimulating opinions. The reader must discover for himself what the perceptive and penetrating mind of the author has to offer, and agree or disagree accordingly. Perhaps the most encouraging of Mr. Wilson's views is his belief that beauty, love and goodness (as well as true diet) are man's natural inheritance from a past and distant Heaven-on-Earth; also his faith-that it is towards a reconstitution of this Golden Age that the planet is now

40

painfully and slowly moving. He writes with poetic force of the ennobling virtues of those higher sentiments that move within us.

Unfortunately, though the author acknowledges that man's natural diet is purely vegetarian (vegan, to us), he considers that it is unwise to "risk a purely vegetarian diet under present conditions," and recommends the use of dairy products as an "insurance against the heavy risks of protein shortage." Mr. Wilson is certainly not up to date when he writes that the dangers of a purely vegetable diet are greater than the dangers of milk. For those with courage, conviction and adequate knowledge, there is no more danger in what we call a vegan diet than in any other. Mr. Wilson's statements do not do sufficient justice to the experience of those who have lived for many years upon a vegan diet with success. And if we are in truth moving towards a future Golden Age it is important to acknowledge right now that someone has to—and quite safely can—start pioneering with its diet. But then the motive force of a deep realization of the extent and implications of the symbolic and actual evil of man's exploitation of the animal kingdom, does not play its part in Mr. Wilson's advocacy of a reformed dietary: his eye is more upon the effects of unnatural eating.

With the vegan, however, this motive force is present and enables him to go forward in faith to prove the benefits of his diet.

The student of a more arcane tradition is not likely to accept Mr. Wilson's theory that the original home of man was in the region of the Himalayas. The whereabouts of the legendary "Garden of Eden" is not perhaps of importance for the main theme of the book. It is, however, misleading to suggest that man, in his natural goodness and pristine purity, was forced to become unpleasant because of the privations that followed his expulsion from his early home by the third Ice Age. It is doubtful whether the origin of evil in man can be accounted for by purely climatic and ecological factors. Nevertheless, the excellence and vigour of this book, in so far as its treatment of the interaction of diet and human life is concerned, may safely recommend it to the student of reformed living.

The New World Civilisation, by Vera Stanley Alder, The C. W. Daniel Co. Ltd., 1954, 1/6.

In this pamphlet, the latest of her writings, Miss Alder sketches out certain aspects of the path that will lead to the establishment of a New Age. She stresses man's responsibility to his own spiritual potentialities and to the world which has been given him to inhabit. Will a new world civilisation really emerge from the corruptions of the present day? Well, those with vision and faith—among whom must be included Miss Alder— believe it will. Their faith is in man, in his capacity to respond to the great humanitarian and spiritual inspirations that are gradually dawning upon the consciousness of the race. But it is important that we should be aware that these inspirations are, in fact, reaching us. Miss Alder's pamphlet assists .their spread and suggests what we may look forward to if we take upon ourselves the responsibility for self-knowledge, self-development and "right living" with respect to ourselves and to others both animal and human.

J.H.

T H E CHILD AND BABY BUREAU Vegans are often challenged regarding their supply of calcium, as the orthodox teaching generally insists on milk for its supply. For growing children especially, calcium is essential and oatmeal provides one of the best means by which it can be given. Raw oatmeal, used in muesli, is, of course, ideal but, if not liked in this form, it can still be given cooked and in scones or biscuits. According to Professor Szekely: "Calcium is the dominant nerve controller; it powerfully affects the cell formation of all living things and regulates the nerve action. It governs contractility of the muscles and the rhythmic beat of the heart. It also corrects the other mineral elements and corrects disturbances made by them. It works in sunlight.

Vitamin D is its essential counterpart." Kindly send all enquiries to: Mrs. S. N. Coles, , Purley, Surrey.

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CORRESPONDENCE It is wonderful to have attained the stage where one conscientiously knows that one is really and truly following the vegan way of life. Certainly this is a very high achievement. One says "I am a vegetarian," another, "Yes, I am a vegan," meaning that they are members of these Societies. To understand what the vegan way is, and to follow it, is quite another matter.

Life may become more difficult, and even trouble and distress may be caused to relatives, who consider that departing from all lactic and animal food is fraught with danger. In spite of this, it is well worth while, and he who overcometh will undoubtedly inherit the Crown of Life. The Secretary of the Bristol Vegetarian Society, himself a vegan, said at the last May meetings held there: "If a person has attained to the vegan way of life, he has achieved very much. There are very few indeed who really have attained this. It may be asked "What, then, is this way?"

I think that most vegans will agree that the basis of it' is a diet of whole vegetarian foods which are uncontaminated, and mostly raw, with set meals and no deviations. This, of course, excludes chemicals, soda, salt, baking powder, and afternoon tea at a friend's house or in a cafe with sundry nibblings at made-up foods and confectionery. If in carrying this out one loses acquaintances and is not again invited, what of it? There is a great fund of worthwhile friendship which is above habit or custom. The real folk understand and respect. • • A great deal of fuss has been made about the result of a purely' vegan diet. There is sufficient sustenance in vegetable food, including fruit, if rightly produced in one's native land, to sustain and keep its people in good and robust health. So few have really tried. Blame for its failure has been made by those who know of deviations. Most of us, too, have a lot to make up on.

I have recently visited part of Northern Ireland, cycling from one Youth Hostel to another. There, hostellers provide and prepare their own food.

I met a good many people and watched their way of life. Three items were very prominent: the frying pan, the tea pot and cigarettes. What might be a healthy holiday is ruined. Most of these people are young, and walk or cycle long distances during their outings. As a vegan I found the company a little trying owing to these habits.

Few took any interest in the elderly and lone hosteller who carried a grater in his kit. There were, however, opportunities to get in a few words, and they were not missed. If any young vegans are members of the Youth Hostels Association, a chance is there and it will be to the unconverted.

We can all do very much to promote the vegan way of life by our example and by perhaps adding a little to our annual subscription and trying to get new members and writing to other vegans. Helping at the Animals' Fair Stall and attending the annual and other meetings for those who are able to do this, is a great help. It is the spirit of pioneering which gains in the long run.

During the ten days spent in Northern Ireland and putting up at Youth Hostels my diet consisted chiefly of Allinson's bread, Vitawheat and Ryvita biscuits, raisins, dates, apples, carrots, onions, lettuce, watercress, Kosher margarine and soya butter, blackberries and elderberries, some demerara sugar and a tin of raw sugar marmalade brought with me, also some fruit and nut cakes. I also had some parsnips and parsley, bananas and one or two pears, and a little Cadbury's roasted nut chocolate and Heinz baked beans. This has variety and proved ample. My chief culinary article was a grater. Much of the above was obtained en-route.

Well, perhaps other vegans and younger, will try a cycling holiday of this nature, carrying with them the gospel of truth and good health.

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Mine was taken in early October, which is quite a good time. Many Hostels are open all the year. There are no frills, but several friends who know what to expect can enjoy a first-rate holiday.

Criccieth, Edgar B. Hewlett.

N. Wales.

As two successful vegans of over seven years' standing, my husband and I would like to endorse all that Alfred Le Huray says in his article on "Veganism and Nutrition" in the autumn number of The Vegan.

We obtain our protein from the various sources mentioned and we also take all the supplementary items of diet recommended by the writer. We consider there is one important omission in the article. How do vegans obtain their Vitamin D in this sunless island? We take "Radiostol," as used and recommended by Dr. Pink. In his booklet Mother, Child and Diet it says: "Vitamin D is easily obtained from Radiostol which is prepared by the irradiation of ergosterol with U.V. rays. This preparation supplies the Vitamin D just as effectively as the fish oils in common use, and has the advantage of being free from animal matter."

Budleigh Salterton, (Mrs.) M. J. Harries.

Devon.

I have just received your Spring, 1954, number, for which I thank you.

Truly I enjoy very much this small but "dear to me" Journal. I feel as if the "Essenes" of old times in my country would have published and sent me this small publication. The Vegan Society has much in common with the "Essenes" who lived not far from here in Ein Gedi and other settlements around the Dead Sea. Not only that you are propagating and living the same "meatless" life and not exploiting animals as the Essenes were doing.

If you would come to Ein Gedi you would see at once that no agriculture could have been practised there which demands animal labour. Our ancestors lived on vegetables, fruits and mostly dates which I presume grow well in that time in that climate.

You also are a "minority" and I do not know why, I am always on the side of them. I cannot say that I .am a "pure" vegan, but this is my ideal and I am striving to be one. Only the immense difficulties arising from environmental and private difficulties are the obstacles that I am not yet a vegan, de facto, because, de jure, I am already since a considerable time.

I .tried last year to change entirely to vegan diet, but as we are a country in which you have sometimes fruits (oranges) in superabundance and another time only the rich can afford to buy fruits, probably my unbalanced diet was the cause that I had not sufficient acidity in my stomach and the doctors told me to eat again eggs and more cooked food.' I must tell you the truth that immediately that I ate again eggs my health became better, as if the acid-deficiency never existed. I must also tell you that eggs are a food which takes less time to make, so I am sure that if I would have had the possibility to obtain another vegan food instead of eggs, I would also have been healthy. But a kind of protein was necessary . What is more at that time I did not know that pea-nuts are not a protein food and ate pea-nuts in great quantities thinking that they give me the substitute for the protein of meat!

Only now I know that they do not contain protein. Their name, pea-Nuts caused the mistake, as other nuts are not yet grown here in peat quantities and must be imported and are very dear. So I had no proteins and became sick.

Some months ago, my friend, Yehezkel Dorn, a vegan, told me that an egg is an embryo. I knew this but it brought up again my horror for animal food, and also, shortly before I saw how a hen of a neighbour died of haemorrhage as the egg was too big and I saw the bloody poor hen. So since then I do not eat again eggs and as I eat now sufficient quantities of potatoes and also other cooked vegetables I feel very well. It is only a pity that walnuts are not a staple product here, but pecan nuts have been planted this

43

year and so in eight years' time we will have sufficient nuts, too, and so proteins. I write you this as we should learn from the experience of one another.

The world to come will certainly be a vegan world. I am not yet a vegan because I do not refuse a milk coffee when at friends or when on travel and nothing else obtainable. In this "hostile" environment, I don't want to say "hostile" because this is not the proper expression, I think it is better to say in this environment where truth is yet dormant it is very, very hard to be a vegetarian and even more a vegan. But the light came already out from the darkness and it is already now in the penumbra, and soon— relatively soon in the history of mankind—it will be clear light. It will be a time when mankind and the sub-humans and all creation will live in harmony, happiness and peace under the sun of the new age.

I find your slogan "cruelty breeds cruelty," page 29 top, excellent. I think all animal friends, vegans and vegetarians all over the world should use this short and simple and penetrating slogan. Doctors told , me in Europe and also here when this question was brought up, that many children who are allowed to whip a horse or a dog generally find pleasure in doing this cruelty, and grow up psychopaths, masochists or sadists. No child should be allowed to be the "master" of a horse or dog if he has the slightest inclination to abuse it.

We have now a snake-plague here and as we have not yet an efficient serum some people died of the bites. I think the excessive poulty-raising brought the snakes to the settlements. The snakes eat the mice, the mice the grain around th? poultry-sheds. ^Vhst would you propose zgainst snakes mostly vipers? Maybe you have a member who was in India or Brazil and he knows it? It may also be that the mice of the fields have been exterminated by poisoned grain and now the snakes are hungry and come to the villages. Wherever the balance of nature is disturbed trouble comes.

England has mostly beneficial influence on us, but sometimes, unfortunately, abhorrent methods are imitated. Recently the poultry raisers learned that it is good to "fatten" a hen by injection of hormones in its head. If this is generally adopted, I pity both our countries. The shadow of sterility will endanger future generations. We must elucidate and elucidate!

Hormones in the heads of chickens!

Mr. Hanworth Walker's visit here brought the most magnificent results for the vegetarian and vegan movement in Israel. Already a National Union was formed and soon we will start a great propaganda action. Will you please tell your members that whenever a vegan comes as a tourist to the Holy Land he or she should inform me, as his visit could be used for vegan propaganda, as a man from afar, as a perfume from Paris, has better fragrancy, more influence, than a local "prophet." Have you heard about my idea of the Universal New Year Day of all Creation? Sri Swami Sivananda, an Indian Sage, wrote that in India there are six New Year Days.

This inspired me that it would be wonderful, uniting mankind all oyer the world if in addition to the usual New Year Day of each religion a Universal New Year Day would be celebrated the same day all over the world. The astronomers should fix it by mutual agreement.

Rishon le Zion, Pinchas Nasich.

Israel.

Having read Health for All, Health and Life and the Vegetarian News, I have now reached the stage of reading The Vegan. It seems to me that vegans are, as a Mr. Pink has remarked, at the spearhead of the Vegetarian Movement. But I think that so much perverse propaganda is put out by the Press that it will take years to progress along vegetarian and nature cure lines, and veganism can be regarded as only an ultimate ideal to look forward to for our children or grand-children. It may be possible for a person of independent means living in the country to practise veganism, but in town with the world around us and conventions on all sides it is no easy task.

44

One can only advance towards such ideals as veganism slowly and surely without rushing. Nor can one expect others who prefer conventional food to change their mode of life suddenly. I wish I had known about nature cure and veganism a few years back when several members of my family were ill with troubles that would have responded to nature cure and vegan treatment.

But, of course, so far as veganism is concerned there is the added attraction that it is making exploitation of animals a moral issue. Cruelty to animals does arise from man's exploitation of them. The mutilation of horses and cattle is particularly offensive. I come of a family of farmers and I am engaged in the leather trade. As I say, we cannot expect to change the whole nature of society in a day or even a year. But we can keep a clear vision of the ultimate ideal in mind and work towards it.

London, E.12.

S. A. C. Webb.

I have had copies of the Vegan from time to time and would like to congratulate you on your splendid little magazine. It is very interesting as well as educational. For those who have been vegetarian for a long time like myself, we are ready to take the higher step which is no animal's products at all. However, for the beginner we can only expect a gradual change. To cut out even the flesh of animals is a big step to take all at once.

I must confess that there are very few of our members here in Calgary, or even throughout Canada, for that matter, who are vegans. It is a pity, for after all, that is the only true vegetarian. I know your representative in the United States—Dr. Kathrine Nimmo. She is a very fine person— absolutely sincere in all her convictions.

Our group is still quite small. We find it an uphill task to interest the public in our way of living. We live in a ranching country where the raising of animals for slaughter is the largest industry of Western Canada.

Where money is the main object, it is almost impossible to overcome such material sentiments. However, we have made our voices heard in our community. A few years ago we held public dinners, when we have had over 100 guests present. For a small city this is not a bad record. We have been a bit dormant lately so are at present trying to feel our way back into the old routine. The members are off to a new start, full of interest and enthusiasm for the future.

With all good wishes to the vegan members and hoping that the future will bring renewed vigour with new recruits to this our Great Cause.

Calgary Unit, (Miss) June F. Kimball, Canadian Vegetarian Union (Corr. Secretary).

I am a Life Member and one of the group of pioneer members when the Society was formed. Though I have faltered on the way, my ideals, and ninety-five per cent of my way of life are vegan, and the arrival of The Vegan is always a joy and inspires me anew. We are most of us solitary units and need this inspiration, and I am thankful the Society and The Vegan survive. I trust it will go on and on. I enclose 30/- as a donation and wish I could make it more.

I would like to comment on the letter from W. M. in Mrs. Drake's report. It is so true that vegans make up with too much pastry, etc., containing rising agents. The difficulty is in providing for a hungry, active family. Individuals can manage. Vegetables, raw or cooked, and fruits, need "topping up" with something satisfying that will carry one on for four or five hours.

Far too many packet cereals are used, which also call for milk; and nut cream is expensive. These cereals are mostly starch and pre-cooked.

My own very satisfactory solution is: baked potatoes with nut butter or gravy made from vegetable stock; and boiled wheat, barley or oatmeal. The latter make a most satisfying dish, after a salad or fruit meal, served with nut milk and a little sweetening of some kind, sugar or syrup.

As we know, whole foods are the answer for health, and here we have

45

them. Care is needed in preparation, but if 1 lb. is cooked at once for a family of three or four this lasts two or three days, and longer if one possesses a refrigerator.

An electric liquidiser is a worthwhile investment, to enable one to make nut cream or milk at home. This is preferable to the bought, as no oil need be added, which I understand is incorporated in the bought to help emulsifi cation.

Forgive this lengthy letter please, but if I know of a good thing I like to pass it on to help others to solve their problems. The correspondence printed I have found very helpful. I also hope we shall have some more T. D e la Torre. The article contained much that was helpful and practical.

BOILED WHOLE CEREALS 3—4 ozs. of whole wheat, barley or pin-head oatmeal—a little experience will prove if the family like a loose or stiff result. Oatmeal, of course, only requires about i hour cooking, but the wheat and barley need at least 3 hours. To soak overnight in 1 pint of the water helps on the cooking.

1 pound wheat or barley, S pints of water. Put the cereal in the boiling water and boil fast for 10 minutes, stirring all the time. Then remove to a very low heat—small electric plate, turned low, with asbestos mat, for instance. Stir occasionally and cook till the grains of wheat are burst and the barley fairly stiff—3 or 4 hours. A large pan, as at first, it boils over easily.

IT a warm dish is required "face a little water in an oven dish with lid, put in the required amount of cold cereal and warm up in the oven. Serve with nut milk and sweetening as required.

Unleavened bread is much more satisfying than the yeasted variety.

For nut milk in liquidiser: mill the nuts first, 2 or 3 ozs. to 1 pint water.

Less water if wanted richer.

Meldreth, Herts.

Evelyn Howard.

Last year I received two copies of Vegan from my intimate friend, Dr. Komaki, and I felt a hearty agreement for your useful movement to world peace. Accordingly, I have introduced your vegan movement through our monthly magazine of Human Reorganization to Japanese people in May issue.

In this issue the explanation of vegan movement and introduction of B.B. Diet was inserted. On page 46, a picture of Vegan (Vol. 8; No. 7) was printed.

I hope more widely and strongly developing of your movement to every corner of world. Will you please give me your closely connection to our movement of Human Reorganization, if you agree to our proposal of human reformation by food and sex. I hope also the exchange of our magazine with yours.

Hoping your great success of precious work.

Soto Institute, Dr. Masakazu Tada.

Shizuoka, Pref. Japan.

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MISCELLANEOUS ADVERTISEMENTS (Two lines 5/-: extra lines 2/- each; 20% allowed on four consecutive issues ) R. CLAUSEN-STERNWALD, Viennese Health Consultant, available again.

Specialist in curative nutrition, drugless therapies and natural rejuvenation. Serious cases only. Write: , Tring, Herts.

HELP to save animals now from suffering and exploitation. Write: Sec retary, St. Francis Fields of Rest, Northiam, Sussex.

HIGHER LIFE SOCIETY. Our Society is dedicated to the Natural Sciences and also the Occult Subjects. For information, kindly address: Joseph Reiss Activities, 3932 Blaine Street, N.E. Washington 19, D.C. NATURAL Grown Dried Bilberries.

Valuable nutritional source of potassium, iron, etc. A truly organically grown food. Delightful flavour.

Grows only wild. Packet sufficient for 20-24 servings, 6s. lid. post free, or Trial Package 2s. 3d. post free. Quotations larger quantities. Easy to prepare. For enjoyment and for your good health. Central Health Stores, 4, Clarence Street, Brighton.

"ORGANIC HUSBANDRY—A Symposium

by John S. Blackburn. 2/9 post free from the Secretary, , Ewell, Surrey.

SPEAKING & WRITING lessons (correspondence, visit) 5/-, classes 1/6.— Dorothy Matthews, B.A., , London, N.W.3.

PRImrose 5686.

VEGAN TRADE LIST, 1/3 post free from the Hon. Secretary, Ewell, Surrey.

ESTABLISHMENTS CATERING FOR VEGANS (First two lines free ; extra lines 2/- each ; 20% discount on four consecutive issues.)

BIRMINGHAM— , Thackeray House. 206, Hagley Road, Edgbasto Bir BROOK LINN.—Callander, Perthshire.

Excellent position overlooking valley, near Trossachs and Western Highlands. Easy access, station J mile. Good centre for walking and touring. Vegetarian and Vegan meals carefully prepared and attractively served. Comfortable amenities.

Special family terms for Annexe rooms with all conveniences. Write for brochure. Muriel Sewell. Tel.: Callander 103.

COOMBE LODGE, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, a household where visiting Veganj say they feel they " belong." Bircher-Benner diet if desired. All fruit and vegetables home-grown and compost-grown. Ideal for week-end conferences. Beautiful views of valley from terrace.

Excellent centre for lovely walks in Cotswold Hills. Children always welcomed. Write to Kathleen Mayo.

CORNWALL.—Vegans welcomed, lovely roseland garden to private beach Brochure from: Trewithian Cove House, Portscatho (75), nr. Truro.

DUBLIN New Health Group welcomes visitors. 49 Adelaide Road, Dublin.

Tel. 67047.

EASTBOURNE.—Board Residence. Bed and Breakfast. Mrs. Clifford, , Eastbourne. Tel. 7024.

EASTBOURNE." Edgehill Nursing Home, 6 Mill Road. Acute, chronic, convalescent rest cure, spiritual healing. , S.R.N., R.F.N., S.C.M. Tel. 627.

KENT, Westgate-on-Sea. An inexpensive holiday is provided by our popular one-roomed holiday flatlets, equipped for self-catering, 30/- to 50/- per week each guest, or with choice of lunch and dinner. Strictly Vegan.

Inclusive August terms 4$ gns. Bathing from the house, sandy beach.

No smoking. Stamp for leaflet. Mr. and Mrs. Arnaldi, " Tel.: 31942.

(Continued on page 3 cover)

47

give your child a better chance Some children are listless and appear to lack interest in what goes o n around them. In many cases this is due to vitamin deficiency in their ordinary diet.

Start giving them two tablespoonsfull of FROMENT in milk every day and you will soon notice in your child an alertness, a joy of living and robustness which was lacking before.

Healthy children shoulcf be like kittens, always alert a n d full of life.

F R O M E N T will provide the essential vitamins B i a n d E to make all the difference. N o synthetic vitamins or any chemicals whatever are used in its manufacture. Compare weight and price.

FROMENT

The Obtainable 16 oz.

Send for folder

Renowned Pure W h e a t Cerm Food at all Health Food Stores and Chemists carton 3/-.

7 oz. size 1 /7-Jr. to sole manufacturers—

J O H N H . H E R O N Ltd., H o o k Road Mills, Goole, Yorkshire

Send your food reform friends a copy of

THE VEGAN

TRADE

LIST

in which are listed many hundreds of Vegan foods and other products, and the firms who make them. Wonderful value at 1/3 post free from the Hon. Secretary, 38 Stane Way, Ewell, Surrey.

48

flaircul

your meals with VESOP CONCENTRATED LIQUID EXTRACT OF PURE VEGETABLE ORIGIN. It intensifies the taste of cooked food. A most appetising addition to soups, stews, vegetables, gravies, etc. Season your salads with a few drops of VESOP. Vegetarians and Vegans everywhere, ask your Health Food Store for VESOP. 1 / 8 per bottle, net weight 8 ox.

(Recipe took on request; VESOP PRODUCTS LTD. 4 9 8 Hornsey Road, London, N.19 Telephone: ARChwey 24J7

(Continued from page 47) HINDHEAD.—Mrs. Nicholson, ; garden adjoins golf course. Children welcome. Tel.: Hindhcad 389.

KESWICK.—Highfield Vegetarian Guest House, The Heads, offers beautiful views; varied food and friendly atmosphere.—Anne Horner. Tel.: 508.

LAKE DISTRICT. Rothay Bank, Graemere. Attractive guest house for invigorating, refreshing holidays.—Write Isabel James. Tel. 134.

LEAMINGTON SPA.—" Qui«isana." First class guest house with every modern comfort, vegetarian or vegan diet. Mrs. H. Newman, Tel. 2148.

LONDON.—Small vegetarian guest house, 20 mins. London.

Terms moderate.

Mrs. M. Noble, , S.W.19.

Tel. WIMbledon 7163.

NORTH WALES.—Vegan and vegetarian guest house, nr. mountains and sea. Lovely woodland garden. Brochure from Jeannie and George Lake, , Penmaen Park, Llanfairfechan. Tel.: 161.

PENARTH—"Vegetarian Guest House," Rectory Rd. Rest, change,relaxation.

Ideal situation. Pleasant holiday resort. Overlooking sea. Attractive, generous catering. Sun Lounge. H. d C. Send for new Brochure.

SCARBOROUGH.—Select guest house overlooking both bays.

Highly recommended by vegetarians and vegans. Mulgrave House, 168 Castle Road. Tel. 3791.

SCARBOROUGH.—Uplands Private Hotel.

Prince of Wales Terrace. Tel. 2631.

ST. CATHERINE'S SCHOOL, Almondsbury, Nr. Bristol.—Progressive co-educational boarding school for children of all ages, specialising in music, dancing, crafts, etc., in addition to usual academic subjects.

400 ft. up, overlooking Channel and Welsh Hills. Own produce.

Please support our advertisers and mention THE VEGAN to them.

mm Tablets Liquid Ointment Suppositories Emollient Rheumatic Balm Veterinary Liquid for internal and external comp!aint» are the heir« to this achievement.

Jn

igi6

Mr. Pierce A. Arnold proudly brought home from the laboratory the first garlic preparation which did not convey the odour of garlic to the partaker, PIERCE A. ARNOLD, F.C.S. Pollard Road, Morden, Surrey

Stocked by Health Food Stores.

Ordered by Chemists.

Send a postcard for literature.

THE

NATURE CURE HUME I HEALTH HYDRU

H. H. GREAVES LTD Printers & Publishers

Treatments include: Fasting, Dietetics, Colonic Irrigation, Spinal Manipulation, Massage, Bergonie Therapy, Radiant Light and Heat, Haths, etc.

Dieting is on non-flesh food reform lines sympathetic towards Vegan principles A

f u l l y qualified physician in residence

it

106-10 L O R D S H I P LANE LONDON, S.E.22

I n v e r e s k H o u s e , Inveresk, Midlothian

T«l*phon» : Far.it Hill 22M-2

(6 miles from Edinburgh) Please support our advertisers and mention THE VEGAN to them.

H

H.

Cr.Eivas

LTD ,

106-110

Lordship Lan«, S.E.22.