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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to John Symonds
26 June 1948
Dear Mr. Symonds,
This will probably reach you at the same time as mine of yesterday's date which is being posted from the city.
We're strangers to each other, but Yorke [Gerald Yorke] has spoken awfully well of you and had probably given you not too bad an impression of me. It would be a great pity if both of us "fell out" in trying to do each other, or someone else, a good turn with the best possible motives.
There are some aspects of A.C. which I admire very much; there was a time when I probably knew more about the inner workings of his mind than anyone else in the world; we knew each other's good points as well as limitations; we were destined to part outer but not inner company; we both had an important job to fulfil. The history of all this is a long one; it involves, too, a good deal of suffering; it could never be truly presented without both sides of the picture being shown, and since much of the story involves records and correspondence, a most careful check-up in time, according to dates, etc.
There has already been enough confusion and distortion in regard to A.C.'s affairs. This was partly his own fault. He obtained a wide publicity in a yellow press 80% of which, from my own observation of reports of "events" known to me, was entirely false. Much that he says in his own records, without the knowledge of the reader of the context, is most misleading. You have, therefore, a difficult job on your hands which I do not envy you one bit. It is quite impossible for me to deal with my records here adequately at this time. For you to try and touch upon such matters from the one-sided information you may have over there could well do a great deal of harm and injustice, however good your intentions. Please therefore consider this when using your "discretion". It is a question of facts and truth, not of hurting one's feelings.
I sent Yorke by slow mail about a month ago a brief article written in 1918 and added to this year. It is entitled "Thinking Backwards". This has never been published. It was shown to A.C. If, instead of anything you had previously planned in my regard, you would like to make this article the "Epilogue" of your book, over the name "Frater Achad", you have my permission to do so; it truly reveals some of my relations with A.C. and represents my well-considered view in regard to him now that a further 30 years has transpired.
Yours very sincerely,
Achad.
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