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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to John Symonds
2 January 1949
Dear Symonds,
Yours of December 22 to hand. I am sending you a small, recently published book American Sexual Behavior and the Kinsey Report which as an author I think you will find of considerable interest and value if it has not already become available in London. It contains some important statistics, and throws a great deal of light on the subject.
I think you are wise not to accept Hamilton's statement unless supported by real evidence. The right way to view the statement made by the Daily Express is not to slur it over as a phrase which "may mean something else" but to face it as a specific charge and realise that it must be false. It definitely states: "He served once a prison term in America for procuring young girls . . ." Now "procuring" is a definite indictable offence, which means that before being brought to trial there must have been a bill of indictment which received the sanction of the grand jury by concurrence of at least twelve jurors, attested by oath or affirmation. A serious and complicated procedure—after which comes a public trial and conviction before any question of serving the term. But for this offence the term itself is not a matter of days or months but of years. In Canada it is ten years—more than the whole length of time A.C. was in the U.S.A. The period varies in U.S.A. in the different States. I do not know what those periods are, but, since for example in New York the term for seduction is five years, procuring is unlikely to be less. Which five, out of the seven he was in America, did A.C. serve this term? The charge is of course absurd and could only have been put over on an ignorant public. I cannot see how Stephensen [P.R. Stephensen] missed the point and refrained from calling Douglas a liar to his face.
You seem to be a little slack in your manner of speaking also when you say: "which can just cover a little adultery, in other words IX degree." What can you expect me to make of that? Yorke [Gerald Yorke] and Germer [Karl Germer], I understand, claim the honour of IX Degree. This, according to your interpretation, would mark them both as Adulterers. I suppose, then, VII—Sovereign Grand Inspector General—must represent one who makes a preliminary survey to check up on venereal disease . . .?
But A.C. did not even have time to serve a sentence for adultery in the State of New York, where the period is a very short one compared with many other states, viz: six months. He arrived in N.Y. December 1914. I have letters from him I think every month during 1915 and 1916, probably more 1917, but his articles in The International were regular in 1917 and early 1918, and I was with him in N.Y. 1918 and so on as mentioned before. There is no break in correspondence long enough to give him even six months "off". Of course he himself wrote "I dare not to the greater sins aspire". It must have been some little piffling thing if he ever did "time" for it.
Sincerely,
Jones.
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