THE WEEKLY DISPATCH

London, England

28 September 1930

(page 1)

ALISTAIR [sic] CROWLEY: NEW MYSTERY

Disappearance in Portugal?

CHARGES OF MAGIC.

Lisbon, Saturday.

(Delayed by Censor.)

The disappearance in Portugal of an English writer named Mr. Alistair Crowley is reported to-day in the Lisbon paper “Diario de Noticias.”

According to this newspaper, a reporter has found a letter said to be from Mr. Crowley, but bearing what is described as a “mysterious signature.

This was discovered at Cascoes, a village situated on the mouth of the Tagus about 23 miles from Lisbon on the rocks known as “Boca Inferno” (Mouth of the Inferno).

It was addressed, the newspaper adds, to a Miss Hanni Jaeger, who recently occupied a suite at a Lisbon hotel. The disappearance of Mr. Crowley has been reported to the police. B.U.P.

A Paris Sensation.

It will be remembered that while Mr. Alistair Crowley was living in Paris in the early part of last year, the police refused to renew his identity card and ordered him to leave France by 9 March, 1929.

Thought the names are the same, it is not clear that he is identical with the Englishman whose disappearance is reported from Lisbon.

Mr. Crowley is over 50 years of age and is a graduate of Cambridge University. At the time he was refused permission to remain in Paris, the Paris “Midi” brought certain charges against him in its columns.

Afterwards Mr. Crowley denied the charges in an interview, “I demand,” he said to the British United Press correspondent in Paris, “an open inquiry into the charges against me, from the charges that I have been employed as a German spy to those accusing me of being an exponent of black magic.

“True British Citizen.”

“As for being a spy for Germany,” he added, “I can only say that I am a true born British citizen and have done my best for my country as a counter-spy for the Naval Intelligence Department in Britain.

“As for the black magic charges, they arise from a layman’s ignorance of the term. Black magic means working against oneself, but I do not teach that. In all my books I teach the exaltation of the consciousness towards the Divine.

“I have held magic séances,” he added, “in which ritual invocations were made, but there was never anything bordering on black magic.”

The French police officials declared at the time that their refusal of permission to Mr. Crowley to live in France had nothing to do with charges of espionage. After leaving France, Mr. Crowley went to Brussels.