THE DAILY PICTORIAL

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

5 February 1930

(page 4)

“BLUEBEARD’S” STORY.

Lecturer Banned at Oxford.

Aleister Crowley’s lecture to the Oxford Poetry Society on Gilles de Rais, a 15th Century magician and the original “Bluebeard,” has been cancelled by the secretary.

The secretary of the society said that the authorities of Oxford were responsible for the banning.

Crowley told the Manchester “Guardian” that he believed that the trouble was due to a report that he was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the death in Sicily of his secretary, Raoul Loveday, an Oxford undergraduate.

“Perhaps I have been banned because Rais is said to have murdered 800 children.

“A false accusation has been made that I have not only killed but eaten children,” said Crowley.