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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to H.B.M. Consul General, Tunis
Aug. 25 [1923]
To H.B.M. General Consul, Tunis.
Sir,
93.
Following our conversation of this morning I have the honour to acquaint you with the following facts.
1. I am a British subject—both by family and birth. I am 47 years old. I was educated at Malvern and Trinity College Cambridge.
2. I am very well known especially in America as a poet, dramatist, novelist, essayist, philosopher, and scholar.
I am also known as an explorer, especially of mountains—Mexico, 2 expeditions to the Himalayas, walks across China, Spain, parts of the Sahara etc.—and as a big game hunter.
3. In 1910 I produced a series of Miracle Plays in London which attracted great favourable attention for the novelty of their idea, construction and setting. Horatio Bottomley of "John Bull", sent last year to penal servitude, and some minor blackmailing journalists attempted to extort money from me by threatening to represent these plays as improper and to print numerous falsehoods as to my moral character.
I refused to pay, and was forthwith accused of being an immoral writer a drug addict and trafficker, a paederast, a souteneur, a swindler, a traitor, a convict, a murderer and a cannibal etc. etc. I was advised to take no notice of these attacks and in fact my time is so wholly occupied with creative work that I have none to spare for law suits.
4. On the publication of my novel, The Diary of a Drug Fiend (William Collins & Co.) in November 1922 these attacks were renewed in "John Bull" and the "Sunday Express". (I had just left England for my Abbey [Abbey of Thelema] in Cefalù, Sicily, where I had been living quietly since April 1920.) In February 1923 my secretary, Raoul Loveday, who had just come down from Oxford, fell ill of Enteritis and died. He had married an artist's model of the lowest character and hysterical temperament almost amounting to insanity, resulting from the abuse of narcotic drugs. Part of my motive in engaging Loveday was to rescue him from the bad influences in London to which he had been exposed owing to the unfortunate marriage. The widow returned immediately to London and sold a sensational story about her husband's death and their life in the Abbey: which was false in about every detail. The "Sunday Express" and "John Bull" were however unscrupulous enough to publish this venomous nonsense.
5. On April 13, Signor Mussolini signed an order for my expulsion from Italy. No reason was assigned for this act, and no accusation of any kind brought against me. I submitted without protest to this outrage. I being under contract to write the story of my life [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] and so having not a moment to spare for any other business soever, Nor can I afford to have my mind distracted for other people's foolishness.
6. I landed in Tunis on May 2. Since the beginning of the year I have been seriously ill with fever, emphysema, asthma and bronchitis and went almost at once to La Marsa "Au souffle du Zephir", where the repose and favourable climate gradually restored me to comparatively good health.
7. During the summer, I received a summons from the Commissariat Spécial of the Police of Tunis. At the moment I was too ill to go, but sent my secretary Mr. Norman Mudd M.A. Cambridge, who reported that the matter was purely formal, concerned a permit de séjoure and was not urgent, though my attendance was necessary. During the last six weeks I called on three separate occasions, always to be informed that the Commissar was absent—ill, and that there was no urgency. They would send me a fresh summons when he was able to attend to the matter.
8. On the 23rd instant I succeeded in seeing a responsible official, who told me that I was in 'contravention', and must obtain a permit de séjoure without delay. This I promised to do, and have since done. He then showed me a copy of the Domenica del Corriere of May 27/23 containing an article about me. He said repeatedly that he advised me (je vous conseille) to leave Tunisia at once. He suggested my going to France or (considering the state of my health) to Algeria, on the ground that there were many Italians in Tunis, even in country districts, who had seen the article (which contained photographs of me). I asked him if he had any complaint to make of my conduct, whether he wished me to leave Tunis officially. He replied in the negative, but repeated his advice emphatically, saying "Beaucoup des gens disent beaucoup de mal de vous". I replied "Pour cela on dit beaucoup de mal de M. Poincaré, et pourvu que je ne fasse pas de mal, let potuis de flaueurs ne m'interessent pas."
The impression made upon my mind was that he anticipated violence against me on the part of rowdy facisti, and did not want anything of the sort to happen in his jurisdiction. At a subsequent interview with my secretary, asked as to this, he refused to confirm the correctness of my deduction. He seemed embarrassed and unwilling to state frankly what was in his mind.
9. I have experienced no unpleasantness of any sort since my arrival in Tunis.
I have made many friends.
I am in the medical care of Dr. Th. Doméla, and should regret exceedingly to be compelled to change.
I am interested in the construction of a golf-course in the neighbourhood of Tunis, and hope to obtain a concession from the government and a contract with the Syndicata d'Initiative.
I am tremendously busy completing my Memoirs, which extend already to over half-a-million words.
For all these reasons I wish to continue to reside peaceably in Tunisia. I shall be careful, as in the past, so to conduct myself as to avoid the slightest scandal or breach of the peace.
10. I therefore formally request you to take up the matter with the authorities concerned, and, if possible, to assure me the continuance of tranquility in my work.
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