THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN

London, England

4 February 1930

(page 11)

BAN ON OXFORD LECTURE.

"Disciplinary Action if Delivered."

A STRANGE AFFAIR.

A lecture which was to have been given to the University Poetry Society to-night by Mr. Aleister Crowley has been officially banned. Mr. Crowley, who was to have spoken on the fifteenth-century magician Gilles de Rais, has received notice from Mr. H. Speaight [Hugh Speaight], the secretary of the Poetry Society, not to come to Oxford as disciplinary action would be taken if his lecture were delivered here. The secretary's letter was as follows:—

I am writing to tell you that we have been unfortunately forced to cancel next Monday's meeting of the Poetry Society. It has come to our knowledge that if your proposed paper is delivered disciplinary action will be taken involving not only myself but the rest of the members of the society. In these circumstances you will, I trust, understand why we have had to cancel the meeting.

MR. CROWLEY'S STATEMENT

Mr. Crowley, when interviewed at his home in Kent, said he considered that there was "some underhand business" behind the prohibition. He said he thought the trouble was due to a report that he was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the death in Sicily of a young Oxford undergraduate, Mr. Raoul Loveday, who was his secretary. He also said:

"Perhaps the refusal to let me lecture has come because Gilles de Rais is said to have killed 800 children in ritual murder and in some way this was connected with myself, since the accusation that I have not only killed but eaten children is one of the many false statements that have been circulated about me in the past."

Copies of the lecture [The Banned Lecture] which Mr. Crowley would have delivered are to be on sale in the streets of Oxford to-morrow.