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Memorandum Regarding Carl de Vidal Hunt circa April 1929
M E M O R A N D U M
SECTION I.
I was educated at Malvern College and at Trinity College, Cambridge.
I was recommended for the Diplomatic Service by the late Lord Salisbury and the late Lord Ritchie. For various reasons I was dissatisfied with the prospects of this as a career.
I was interested in climbing the great mountains of the world, in writing poetry, and in studying what, for want of a better word, is called the Occult Sciences.
On coming of age, I inherited a fortune which amounted, first and last, to something in the neighbourhood of £100,000.
I discontinued all regular attempts at a career, and went out to explore the mountains of Mexico, etc. When actually not on a Glacier I tried to discover some of the so-called hidden Magic, known by the so-called wise men of old.
This course of action led me to China, Ceylon, and India. In 1902 I was second in command of an expedition to the Himalayas.
In 1903 I returned to England and married [Rose Kelly]. About this time I began to publish reprints of a Medieval Book on the subject of Magic, and certain original essays with the idea of rationalizing the old theory.
At this period I was publishing poetry which achieved a certain success. I should mention in particular that I became the intimate friend of Auguste Rodin, Marcel Schwob, Eugèus Carrière, Anatole France, and other distinguished writers, and artists.
I continued travelling, and I made a second expedition to the Himalayas in 1905. I spent part of 1904 and 1906 shooting Big Game, and in 1906 I walked across China.
These general activities necessitated a certain discontinuance of my work in England and Paris, the latter city being my principal headquarters.
I made various expeditions on holiday, such as walking from Bayonne to Gibraltar and traversing sections of the Sahara on three separate occasions.
SECTION II.
At the outbreak of war I offered my service to the British Government, but was informed that men were not wanted. I was obliged to go to America on business, as I supposed, for a fortnight, but during this period I discovered the existence of the Pro-German propaganda. I decided to destroy this. I am a Chess player of some merit, and my plan was consequently over-subtle. I took advantage of the fact that my name, although rare in England, was very common in Ireland, and I tried to pass myself off on the Germans as an Irish Rebel. I hoped in this way to be admitted to their secret councils and report any information of which I thus became possessed, to the British Authorities. This idea was carried out as far as possible, but one thing led to another; my activities became very complicated; and owing to my being much a good Chess player I was quite unintelligible to the Secret Service of my own country. However, as soon as America, owing largely to my stratagems, came into the war, I found myself on the best possible terms with the Department of Justice of the United States, and I worked for it until the Armistice.
SECTION III.
Having wound up my business in America I returned to England some 13 months after. I was very fed up with the post-war hysteria and retired to Sicily. I took a Villa at Cefalu and devoted myself to various scientific experiments.
One of these was to study the so-called Habit-forming Drugs.
In 1922 I went to England and Messrs. William Collins, the publishers, gave me three contracts for various books, one of them being entitled the "Diary of a Drug Fiend", in which I showed the pernicious effects of such drugs as cocaine and heroin, and suggested a moral cure to supplant the effect of the physical cure, which have been generally regarded as futile. A Blackmailing Journalist, named James Douglas, of the "Sunday Express", attacked this book saying that it was an incentive for drug-taking, instead of, as in fact it was, a serious warning against such folly. Feeling the weakness of his position, and being assured that I was 1500 miles away and ill with asthma, the "Sunday Express" published a libellous article about me, stating, for instance, that I had been in prison for 5 years in America as a White Slave Trafficker. This at a time when I was prominent as the Editor of a first-class magazine [the International], and in constant touch with the best people in the country.
A certain colour was lent to this business by the fact that the young man [Raoul Loveday] whom I had engaged as my secretary died of arthritis as the result of a surfeit of oranges. Reporters of the Gutter Press met his widow [Betty May] on her return to England, made her drunk, and elicited from her a statement in which she made me responsible for the death of her husband, and they elaborated this absurdity with all sorts of nonsense of their own.
The well-known patriot Horatio Bottomley saw money in this rubbish, and published weekly articles about me as 'A Man We Would Like to Hang', 'The King of Depravity', 'The Wickedest Man in the World', 'The Human Beast', and so on. My lawyers informed me that in order to take up any libel action I would have to put down £1000.—in cash before they began, and that to carry through the Law Suit would cost £5000, and that I had no chance of winning the case because I had translated books by French Authors all of whom are notoriously immoral and blasphemous and obscene.
During the whole of this period my reputation as a writer on Occult subjects had become consequently greater, so that no article, even remotely dealing with such subjects, was considered complete without accounting me responsible.
This had begun before the war. I was supposed to have eloped with Lady Marjory, i.e. Manners, a lady whom I have never seen. What really happened was that she happened to be in Birmingham and had a talk with Sir Oliver Lodge on spiritualism, and as it was not thought good copy to bring Sir Oliver Lodge into it, they decided it was I who had eloped with her.
This kind of business has been going on for years in the American Sunday newspapers. For instance, when Mabel Norman gave a party and some Movie Actor, Desmond Taylor, was shot by her Chauffeur, they blamed it all on me.
Another man wrote a story stolen from Robert Louis Stevenson's Suicide Club, laying the plot in Germany, and informed the world that I was the gentleman who always turned up the 'ace of spades'. There was no sense whatever in my taking notice of all this dementia; it did not touch me, and I should simply have soiled my hands by meddling with it.
SECTION IV.
In October 1928, a sort of informal company was constituted with the object of publishing various works of min, particularly on the subject of Magic. It was decided to engage a person name Hundt, who calls himself Carl de Vidal Hunt, as publicity agent. We found that he was doing nothing whatever for his salary, but merely putting our money in his pocket. He was therefore dismissed for dishonesty and incompetence at the end of November. He immediately wrote a letter to my English partner, Mr. Gerald Yorke, 9, Mansfield Street, London, W.1., a copy of which is attached to this statement. This letter, phrased cleverly enough, is, when properly understood, plain Blackmail. Mr. Yorke's relations in Europe are exceptionally distinguished. His great-uncle was a Premier, and his uncle is a close friend of the King. Hundt knew it was very important that Yorke should avoid any scandal, and thought that by writing a letter of this kind he would induce Yorke to go on paying his salary. This letter contained menaces of denouncing me to the Police.
Mr. Yorke replied in appropriate terms, and Hundt stated that he would not take any action unless some new event transpired. In point of fact, however, he did make this denunciation. On his dismissal he did not return certain papers which had been entrusted to him in confidence as our employee, but sent them to the Police.
For some reason for which we are entirely at a loss to fathom, the Préfecture took this matter seriously, and sent round a detective to make enquiries. This man was so stupid that he was not quite sure whether my coffee machine was an anarchist bomb or an apparatus for distilling cocaine. After several interviews, however, he appeared quite satisfied, and said that all they required to end the business satisfactorily was a statement from some Frenchman who knew me.
I should have mentioned earlier that when I was in Tunis in 1923, the Police were very anxious about me on account of my having murdered three women in Sicily. The most elementary investigation proved that the whole story was balderdash. The British Consul intervened on my behalf and I was left in peace. Mr. Aumont [Gerard Aumont], a Journalist in Tunis, who was on intimate relations with the Authorities, had undertaken the translation of my books into French. He investigated the whole matter with the result that I found myself in a very short time on the best of terms with the Resident General and the Police Authorities.
I gave the name of Mr. Aumont to the Préfecture who was able to give evidence as to my activities in France and her Colonies, and this was in 1923. He came up to Paris on February 2nd, of this year, and was assured by the Chef de Bureau at the Préfecture that there was nothing to worry about, that his friend would not be in any way disturbed.
In the meantime there was some slight technical trouble with the Cartes d'Identitié. The Service d'Etrangers was excessively charming and polite in every way, and gave us every possible help in clearing up this matter. They took our money without a blush.
On February 13th, after getting a chill at Fontainebleau, where I had gone for the week-end, I found myself decidedly ill and took to my bed. I had no reason whatever to apprehend any further difficulty with the Police.
I was supposed to call for my Carte d'Identitié on February 20th, but was so unwell that I could not go out. I sent my Secretary, Mr. Regardie [Israel Regardie], down to the Préfecture with my receipt. They told him they could not give him a regular card without a written authorization, but that everything was quite right and would he please come back in a few days?
On Tuesday, March 12th. A Hussier came from the Préfecture with a summons for the following day, this included not only myself but Mr. Regardie, an American citizen, but my fiancée, Mlle Ferarri [Maria de Miramar], a Nicaraguan citizen. I explained to the man that I was ill in bed and would he mind postponing the summons until Friday, March 8th, to which the man agreed with the utmost courtesy.
On that day I was far from well and was in bed. I therefore, sent the other two down to the Préfecture to arrange their own affairs, with a letter from me asking them to deliver my card to my Secretary. They returned with a pink paper indicating "Refus de séjour", and that we all had to leave the country on the following day, March 9th.
A man from the Préfecture called in the afternoon of March 8th, to give me my pink paper, but found me ill in bed, and said it would be all right for me to stay, provided I had a Medical Certificate that I was not fit to travel. I immediately obtained this. My fiancée went to her Consul on the morning of March 9th, and he took her to the Minister of the Interior himself, but all he could do was to talk nonsense about there being nothing whatever against her, but that I was selling cocaine, and that they were doing her a great kindness putting her out because of the women I had driven insane or murdered. Mr. Regardie's Consul seemed unable to do anything for him. These two persons, therefore, left on the evening of Saturday, March 9th, for England, but on Sunday morning they were refused admission, and after all sorts of needless insults and hardships found a temporary refuge in Brussels.
It is evident from the foregoing that the mainspring of this disgraceful affair is the blackmailer Hundt, and the essential thing is to bring an action against him for theft of documents and abuse of confidence.
It may be that the affair is complicated by the vengeance de femme, as a certain woman [Kasimira Bass] waylaid my fiancée in the autobus and proceeded to threaten her, some weeks ago; but it is clear that the first step to take is to bring a criminal action against Hundt, and to have the order rescined to give us time to clear up the whole situation.
It is vital that my witnesses should be on the spot. Also, I need secretarial help and personal attendance.
From the statement of the exiles it appears that this talk about selling cocaine and killing women is not very serious, but that some people have a superstitious fear of Black Magic, that the real charge is fundamentally a charge of Witchcraft, and that we have only to get the whole affair put before the public and kill it with ridicule.
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