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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Dion Fortune
Dion Fort., 2 Queens Pl, W.1
27 March 1945
Dear D.F.
93
I am very much concerned indeed at what you tell me. It is your second near escape and I really think it might be a warning. I have never been a partisan of the Hero Martyr School. The Captain should not be the last person to be saved or go down with the ship. He is the person to be saved first because he is the best witness as to the causes of the accident and that may be valuable to the cause of navigation in general.
I am sorry that you should have fallen on the gainsaying of St. Thomas. On my walk through China I was three or four days inside the Frontier when I was met by poor dear Litton, our Counsul at Teng-yuck. We sat down and had lunch together. He had the reputation of running the whole Province of Yunnan by sheer force of personality and I was naturally anxious to [illegible]. I began by remarking that I had been told a lot of absurd stories and attached no credit to them. He pulled me up sharp—"Young man!" he said very solemnly, "the first thing to remember when you're in China is confirmation of Poule-aux-Rats story from 50 people you could meet in pubs and clubs within 1/2 mile radius of your headquarters."
By a strange coincidence I picked up a copy of "Pitcher in Paradise" in a second-hand shop here, and just as on to page 286. It is a story of Sheffield in which a big monkey was backed to break a noted terrier's rat-killing record of one hundred inside 4 minutes. Pitcher gives all possible details except the size of the Pit, but the monkey won by 76 seconds after a very slow start. Your analogy of your adventure with a mouse is not relevant. The behavior of a frightened animal is very different to that of a fighting animal excited by the smell of blood.
If that is not enough evidence for you, I give up. But it certainly happened. I was myself present on three occasions. The first introduced by an expert in strange doings and afterwards as myself in charge of a party.
I do hope you will take my advice and get well outside range until we have driven the Hun out of the Hague and neighbourhood despite all that bishop can do.
93 93/93
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