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Correspondence from Gerald Yorke to Mr. F. Covell (Withers & Co. Solicitors)
49 Oxford Mansions, London W.1.
14 March 1932.
For the attention of Mr. Covell.
Dear Sirs,
Yours 13/9/32 with enclosed, reference F.C.
I return draft proof of evidence with a few alterations in the text.
I do not quite like the wording of the reference to Mrs. Busch [Bertha Busch], with whom I have no quarrel. She is only his mistress by force of circumstances, since he cannot obtain a divorce while his wife is in Colney Hatch.
I think it of the utmost importance to state that I informed Mr. Crowley of my intention to go to China this autumn as far back as last April. I did not receive a letter from his solicitors until 9/8/32. I enclose the correspondence which passed between us. As the list of payments by me to Mr. Crowley in 1932 (a copy of which you have) will show, I have paid him £300 this year. It was not until I told him that I was coming to the end of the money which I was prepared to advance him, that he started threatening legal proceedings.
Another of Mr. Crowley's grievances with me is that I have never introduced him and Mrs. Busch to my friends socially, or given him and Mrs. Busch letters of introduction to people with capital who might conceivably put up money for him. The reason which I have stated to him on more than one occasion is that experience has led me to distrust his commercial integrity, while his code of morals in private life is not that of my friends and family.
In 1928 and the early part of 1929 I was rather more active on Mr. Crowley's behalf than the deposition would lead one to believe. I tried to get various people interested in him, took his typescripts round to various publishers, and helped him in many small matters. When however he came to England in 1929 and 1930 with his Nicaraguan wife [Maria de Miramar], I became somewhat disillusioned. I found as a director of the Mandrake Press Ltd that there was no ready sale for his books, and that our views as to how he should put himself over did not coincide. I wrote him to this effect in October 1930 and he "suspended" me from all "functions".
At the present moment he and Mrs. Busch are using all means in their power to get me to pay their room rent, and a month's advance rent to enable them to move into a cheap flat. In view of the legal expenses to which I am being put, I am declining to do so. I will write you at greater length in the train, and post the letter from Harbin. My address is c/o Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Shanghai. Please write me in duplicate, sending one copy via Siberia and the other by sea, as I understand that the overland mail is none too reliable. I am sending my correspondence files out by sea, and as soon as I know more details with regard to the charges, will send you the relevant correspondence, and my reply. Please delay the hearing of the action as long as you can, and I think that the case will be dropped.
Please send me a copy of the evidence on my behalf, and of the actual writ.
Yours sincerely,
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