Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

Chapter 4

“THE NEW AGE”

By the beginning of the 1920s Mitrinovié had resolved to make London the base for the life work that lay ahead. What he lacked was a means of communicating his ideas and his vision of world reconstruction to a wider audience than those friends and acquaintances that had gathered around him.

During this period one of the most influential media of communication was The New Age under its editor A. R. Orage. It was, according to Hugh MacDiarmid, “the most brilliant journal that has ever been written in English, and small though its circulation was it reached all the liveliest minds in Great Britain.”! According to another commentator The New Age was “an unparalleled arena of cultural and political debate” during the period of Orage’s editorship between 1908 and 1922.2 As such, the weekly and the circle of intellectuals associated with it represented a natural attraction for one such as Mitrinovi¢é who believed he had something to offer the world and who had always stressed the seminal impact that could be exerted on others by the highest minds.

It was Paul Selver who introduced him to Orage and his circle shortly after their first meeting in Fulham. Orage was convinced of the need to stimulate and co-ordinate the abilities of his contributors as part of his attempt to make the weekly a periodical which would mediate between specialised fields of knowledge: politics, art, literature, economics, philosophy. To this end he held literary and political gatherings where he would introduce the contributors to each other. Regular Monday afternoon meetings were held at the ABC Restaurant in Chancery Lane. There were also weekly discussions at the Kardomah Café in Fleet Street and lunches at the Sceptre Restaurant, with the Café Royal frequently acting as the rendezvous for evening sessions. Amongst those who attended such gatherings during the pre-war years were G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, S. G. Hobson, Beatrice

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