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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
chez M. Schlosser, Cugnon—Montehan, A la Semois.
May 15, 1929 [Dictated May 12th]
Care Frater:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This morning I got your letter undated, but bearing the postmark May 10, 6:15 p.m.
I ought to mention to you that both de Miramar [Maria de Miramar] and Regardie [Israel Regardie] were told by the authorities at Dunkerque that they really need not bother to leave France at all; as long as they hung about in quiet country places, they would not be disturbed.
The police came to look for us sometime last week after we had gone. That is, they sent a post card to the Metropole. Regardie went to see them and they said to him that as we were in the country it did not matter at all, but when we come back they would grant a Permis de Sejour. They did not bother Regardie for anything at all.
I wish you would let me have a little further information about the recent murders of women in Paris. You don't of course mean the murders in Marseilles?—some of which were committed while I was there, or at least discovered at that time. It was a man named Pierre who advertised for women with savings and took the opportunity to bury them neatly. He bolted to Algeria but was brought back, would never confess, and ultimately died in prison before he could be brought to trial, mostly as a result of an hunger strike, but I cannot imagine how anything but sheer insanity can connect me with them.
Now about Carter [Lieutenant Colonel John Carter]. Raynes, whom I have previously mentioned to you as foreign editor of the Literary Digest when I was in New York, was in touch with the head of the Belgian Secret Service. On one occasion he mentioned to me a Carter, who, if I remember correctly, was being sent up to Teng Yueh to replace Litton. I think I met him on the road and exchanged a few friendly words. A very full account of Litton's death is given in the Memoirs [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley]. I ask you to especially note that the Bengali doctor, despite a sound horsewhipping from me, refused to go near the body to enquire into the cause of death. He simply certified it as erysipelas. It was I (and George Forrest, I think—but I am not sure,) who had the idea that he might have been poisoned. I met Litton once only just inside China from the Burmese frontier. We lunched together, al fresco, and he gave me a lot of valuable information. He then went off to settle up some differences among unruly tribes. It was a month or so later when the messenger came to tell us that he was very ill. The curious thing was that Raynes spoke of Carter as if he had something against me, or such was my impression. In particular Raynes asked me about the death of the child, who accompanied me and my wife across China. They had to return to England by sea via India to pick up some baggage, while I was to return to England by America chiefly to try to get some people interested in a new Himalayan expedition for the following year. The child was taken ill on the ship from Hong-Kong to Rangoon, was put ashore in Rangoon and died of fever in the hospital there. After I discovered some months later, that my wife was a dipsomaniac I always had a horrible fear that she started drinking on the ship and did not properly clean the nipple of the bottle from which the baby was fed. I may say that this thought has really been poisonous.
I do not know about anti-British things in Co-Masonry. But I have always thought that Annie Besant wanted to destroy British rule in India, and I have always thought, and still think, that the proper policy is to put me in her place. I am absolutely convinced as Blavatsky was that British rule is the only possible solution to the Indian problem. The Theosophical Society is an extremely rich body and I think it extremely probable that they supply much of the funds for anti-British propaganda. I am entirely in accord with Rudyard Kipling about the proper course to pursue in India. I think our rule should be tightened up considerably. I would, for example, not allow any English women in India under any pretext. I would not permit any Indian "students" to come to England and have an affair with a housemaid and go back to India boasting everywhere that they have slept with all the white women in Blighty. What we need in India is even-handed justice between all the warring religions, races and castes. But the dangerous people are the so-called educated people who have given up their traditions. I should not allow any native Indian to hold any responsible place in the Government. The only exception is the actual ruling princes, and they ought to made to walk straight with the fear of God upon them.
With my knowledge of Eastern psychology I can do a great deal to help without appearing personally. I would rather cut my hand off than join a Co-Masonic lodge, which is in any case against my oath as a mason. But there is no reason at all why I should not direct an inquiry.
What you say about the French is quite beyond my comprehension. Indeed I find it very hard to believe that the case is as you say. I really wonder whether my brain is not going. It ought to be obvious that when a person is being closely watched for months at a time they must know the actual facts; and there is absolutely nothing which is in the least suspicious. In fact, the whole problem is; what is it that they suspect? It seems a case of pure panic fear.
I am proposing to stay here and complete my convalescence for about another fortnight. In the meantime I am writing to the Consul to ask him to assist Regardie to arrange this marriage. This being done, there is no reason at all why one should not come to England at once, provided always that there is a considerable sum in hand. This matter of money has now become of the first importance. It would absolutely not do for me to arrive in England more or less without a penny. It does not matter at all our living down here on 50 Belgian francs a day apiece. Anyone can do that as a mere whim. But if one comes to London one cannot put up at some hotel in Shoreditch.
There is nothing whatever I can do beyond writing Germer [Karl Germer] as I have done.
With regard to Carter once more. I think you might arrange to see him again within the next fortnight and let him know what I think about all this anti-British stuff, especially about India, where I feel we are in danger of losing our grip altogether. 50 years ago the veriest child would have known that a scheme like the Simon Commission was absolutely foolish. If you go to an Indian offering concessions and trying to do the right thing by him, etc. he throws stones at you and robs you and conspires against you. If you beat him about the head with a sufficiently heavy club, a great light dawns upon him, and he behaves very decently indeed. It is plain idiocy to treat the inhabitants of Hindustan as if they were homogenous with a unique tradition and a single point of view; or to assume that their morality corresponds in any point with our own. They have a perfectly good morality of its kind, but it is quite beyond the grasp of the average Englishman. That is why it is so utterly mischievous to send out people like Kein Hardie to run about the country and lap up the filth. Even Curzon in the early years of his viceroyalty was completely fooled by the plausible (but greasy) Bengali lawyer with his Oxford education and his belief in gold, sulphur and mercury as panaceas.
With regard to the Belgians, I am informed that they can not, as in France, issue a Refus de Sejour without alleging a definitive motive. I think you have to take a small pinch of salt with all these official statements which assume that the plain citizen has no rights.
However, the only thing we can do is to hurry up the supply question as if there is any deficiency in this respect it would be stupid to come to England and one would have to go to Holland in case of emergency. Of course, personally, I discount all this hysteria.
I wish you would write me a few further details. You tell me for example that the French are really worried, but you don't say about what, and the whole thing is so inconceivable that the statement as it stands appears to be almost nonsensical. I shall hope to hear from you again very shortly.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally
666.
P.S. After securing Regardie's future for a month, we have about 5,000 french francs remaining, but there is one urgent debt in Paris before the end of the month of 5000 francs. I daresay half would do.
666.
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