AUTHOR OF ROOKS ON BLACK MAGIC

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6954, 6 July 1929, Page 7 (Supplement)

AUTHOR OF ROOKS ON BLACK MAGIC

Former Spy's Exploits

PROTESTS AGAINST ORDER TO QUIT PARIS

An Englishman, against whom there are accusations of having practised black magic and of offences against decency, has been ordered to quit Paris. He is Edward Alexander Crowley, and caused some stir in London years ago. Born in Leamington 53 years ago, and educated at Malvern and Trinity College, Cambridge, his profession was that of a poet and a writer on Buddhism. He had, he said, published books for over 30 years, and lived by authorship and on invested money. A strange, wandering life he led. He travelled through China on foot, and almost succeeded in ascending the Himalayas, and was received at Thibet by the "sacred lamas. During the war, he went to America and participated'in German counterespionage, but lie declares that ho lent himself to this role in agreement with the British Naval Intelligence Service, and that by the influence he exercised ho succeeded in counterbalancing the formidable German organisation which existed in the United States. Winning German Confidence.

“I had no difficulty in ingratiating myself with the Now York Irishmen,” he said, “for my name, which was that of many of them, served as a passport. I discussed with Bernsdorff, the German Ambassador, tho possibility of an Irish revolution, and to further this idea I wrote violent articles in the German paper in New York, Das Vaterland, and suggested that England should become a German colony. “But I did these things in order to win the confidence of tho Germans. Tho object I had in view wa3 to make the German submarines sink American ships, and so eompol America to enter tho war. I was weU in with tho chief of tlie American Naval Intelligence Service, and I have sent him a telegram begging him to send mo a letter, which I shall forward to tho Erench government.” When he was pressed to givo tho reasons why tho police had ordered him to leave Prance, Crowley said that he knew of none. There have been allegations that lie had organised parties in his flat, that black magic was practised there, and that he was guilty of offences against morality. He admits that ho has written a great deal about magic. “Thcro is no acusation against me,” he declared. “My sweetheart was expelled. She was told that a service was being rendered to her by separating her from me. When she demanded what it was tho French authorities had against mo they suggested that I was a trafficker in cocaine. This is ridiculous. Afterwards they said: 'lt is not that. Perhaps that is not true. It is something else. The real reason is too terrible.’ “I liavo lived in Paris for soven years. I liavo led a peaceable life, writing during the day, and playing chess at my club in the evenings. I was notified on March that I would have to leave. When tho police came here they were much attracted by a coffee mill, and wondered whether it was a machine for destilling cocaine. “Like Dreyfus.”

“My case can bo likened to that of Dreyfus. The Fronch authorities are not obliged to givo reasons for the action they have taken against me and I repeat that they have given none. The British Embassy, has. left my ease severely alonc.l It.has absolutely refused to help me. “There was a suggestion that anybody who helped mo might be expelled also. What I am insisting on is an open inquiry before which witnesses can be produced who will be prepared to make accusations against me. My case is in the hands of M. Paul Boncour, the Socialist deputy and barrister.

I believo that an attempt will bo made to hush up the business.” Crowley’s literary works include a translation of Baudelaire, and a volumo of sonnets on Rodin, illustrated by_ reproductions of tho sculptor's principal *At ono time he was a well-kuown figure in Montparnasse, where he had a reputation as a master of tho occult sciences. Numerous articles about him have appeared in the French press. A woman writer who know him well at enc time has said that he claimed to sec through the thickest wails, and that he could “dislodgo himself from his bodv. ” Mr. Crowley came into prominence in" London in 1911. when his picture was painted by Augustus John. He was hotly attacked as tho head of an “abbey’"’ in Sicily, where degenerate rites wciT! alleged to bo carried on. Ho is the author of “The Diary of a Drug Fiend” and works on the occult.