Scientology’s Leader Works In Stately Home

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30883, 16 October 1965, Page 18

Scientology’s Leader Works In Stately Home

IB V

ALAN VEITCH.

in the Sydney

[Reprinted by arrangement]

From his magnificent Sussex Manor on a 58-acre, treelined estate, once owned by the Maharajah of Jaipur, Scientology’s philosopher leader appealed for sympathy.

“The lot of the philosopher,’’ he said, “is a hard one.”

Dr. Lafayette Ron Hubbard. Scientology's 54 - year - old founder, this week issued a statement defending himself against the finding of the scientology inquiry in Melbourne.

The statement which questioned the validity of the inquiry was released from Saint Hill Manor, the early eigh-teenth-century estate in East Grinstead. Sussex, that is the world headquarters of scientology.

Dr. Hubbard controls his world-wide organisation from a mansion on a hill overlooking a spectacular valley of forests. It is surely one of the most beautiful estates in England. When I called there this week to interview Dr. Hubbard I was greeted by the kind of attractive, smartlydressed blonde one expects to find working in a Park Lane advertising agency. She led me to a Mr Reg Sharpe, a tall, rangy man of about 45 who smiled a lot and wore a yellow badge in his sportscoat inscribed with the letters. “S.R.” The “S” stood for Scientology and the “R” represented a certain elevated stage he had reached in his scientology studies. No Interview

Mr Sharpe, who described himself as Dr. Hubbard’s personal aide, declared at once that the doctor could not be interviewed. “Dr. Hubbard works all through the night,” Mr Sharpe explained “and he sleeps in the day.” When the Melbourne attack on scientology was mentioned

Mr Sharpe adopted a pained expression. “Frankly, Dr. Hubbard is getting rather tired of these Melbourne people and their report.” Asked again if the doctor could be persuaded to be interviewed, Mr Sharpe replied: “No, that’s impossible. We’ve got plenty of literature about him here. You can find out all you need to know about him from our handouts.” “Mister Roberts”

Who is Dr. Lafayette Ron Hubbard? The handout tells us he is none other than “Mister Roberts,” the character portrayed in a Hollywood film by Henry Fonda.

At the end of the Second World War according to the handout, the adventures of Dr. Hubbard as a United States naval officer were filmed under the title of “Mister Roberts.” although contrary to the film version, Hubbard was not killed in action. The Hubbard handout says that besides “Mister Roberts” several other “novels, stories and plays have been written about various aspects of his life.”

It adds: “One of these. ‘Rocket to the Morgue,’ by H. H. Holmes, labelled him as ‘D. Vance Wimpole.’ In a science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt, he is called more flatly ‘Elron,’ and completely in argument to the characterisation in ‘Mister Roberts,’ is the villian of the piece.”

How did Dr. Hubbard begin his scientology work? It all began, according to the handout, during his travels in Northern China and India in his middle teens. He became intensely curious about the composition and destiny of man. “This was aroused by his

close study with Lama priests and his acquaintance with warlike people. In -the latter case he was able to gain their confidence by his skilful ability at horse-riding. “In 1950 Dr. Hubbard supposed he had studied man enough and had written about man enough to write a book about him as such, stressing what made him ‘tick.’ “Although he had early written monographs such as ‘Man Under Stress’ and a ‘Description of Mental Workings,’ from the viewpoint of the physicist and anthropologist. his 1950 work was for popular consumption, written at the behest of a phychiatric textbook publisher. Sales of Book

“Dr. Hubbard and the publisher expected the book to sell about 6000 copies. It sold 100.000 in the first three months of its publication and is still selling. “Its name was “Dianetics: the modern science of mental health.’ Because of the interest. several connexions of the publisher organised a company to serve the communication lines created by the book.”

Mr Sharpe said that Dr. Hubbard, an American, runs the world headquarters of scientology from Saint Hill Manor because he likes living in England. “We’ve got about 150 students studying here at the manor, including 50 from overseas. They live in the main part of the East Grinstead township. “We’ve been quite a dollarearner for England. A lot of our overseas students are Americans and they’ve spent over a million dollars in this country over the past few years.”