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Correspondence from Charles Stansfeld Jones to John Symonds
20 January 1949
Dear Symonds,
I have your letter of the 15th. In the interests of truth and justice I did my best to answer your enquiry. Am glad you agree with my line of reasoning. I might make a couple of further remarks on points in paragraph 2 of your letter. Then the matter on my side will also be closed.
It seems to me that in these matters it is important to try and be accurate in the use of one's terms. You still use the term adultery rather loosely—and in writing that might make quite a lot of difference. A.C. had an early divorce, and did not, so far as I know, marry again. During the period under discussion A.C. could not have committed adultery—for that is an offence on the part of a married person. Any part which A.C. might have taken in such an affair, whether with a single or married woman, would be fornication. The latter, although considered a crime in some States, is not an offence against the law in the State of New York.
There is in the U.S.A. what is called the "Mann Act" which makes it an offence to take a person across one of the State boundaries for immoral purposes. This evidently is that to which you refer. I don't know what the penalty, but I think that when such a case is for some reason actually brought to court, the punishment again is severe and lengthy. It would certainly be well aired in all the daily papers of the period.
Sorry I cannot help you further: (a) Do not know the date of Mudd's [Norman Mudd] suicide—which was news to me since last year; (b) Had no correspondence with him 1926-1930; (c) Am not interested in scandals, Detroit or others. Have already explained fully to Yorke [Gerald Yorke] that Detroit affair mostly a newspaper hoax lacking foundation in fact; (d) Yorke has already had copies of all A.C. letters to 1916 and returned them; those between that date and 1919 deal with my personal magical affairs, and if ever published in part will be in connection with my own life rather than that of A.C. They are not available for your present purposes; (e) I have already supplied the only available portion of the record you mention. There is nothing further I can do in that connection.
Yours very sincerely,
Jones.
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