SecED: Parliament and Balniel

SECRETARIAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Office of LRH

11 March 1966¹

SECED 70 WW & 342 SH & 7L
Applies to Exec […]ES Comm Dissem WW
Sec 5, Dept 3.
Dist to all staff

Copies to Fine West and Lord Salisbury

PARLIAMENT & BALNIEL
RETARDED CHILDREN

1. Lord Balniel, being interested mainly in retarded children aside from any other connection, may have a confusion with a book “Creative Learning”, written by LCC teachers, and the work of Ray Kemp and Harry Thompson (a known suppressive person) mixed up with my work in Scientology.

2. In 1957 or ’58 Ray Kemp, not then in too good standing with Scientology London, but in no way discouraged by us, taking the book written by the London County Council teachers, was working with UK retarded children groups from a Hampstead Health HQ of his own.

3. The Book, “Creative Learning”, while based on Scientology was written by Silcox and Maynard on their activities in London County Council Schools.

4. Kemp, for one reason or another, got a black eye from those like Balniel who had a vested interest in retarded children. and although he had some remarkable case successes was more or less driven out of the field. His work was badly invalidated to groups interested in retarded children and quite rejected. Balniel’s group may have been behind this.

5. Harry Thompson was not a trained Scientologist. He moved into East Grinstead while I was in South Africa and worked with two teachers. Miss [Sheila Hoad] and Miss Roberts. Someone, probably Jones, Clerk of the EG Council, dreamed up the “Death Lessons” scandal of 1961 which made international anti-Scientology” press. The story claimed the children were being taught to imagine themselves dead. We are not sure why this was a crime as any church does it.

6. It is not a Scientology technique routinely. The publicity was the forced kind of publicity that requires a lot of work by an instigator to get going.

7. So the two largest “anti-Scientology” messes in the UK seem to trace back to retarded children. Balniel is mainly interested in this and it was he who put the recent question in Parliament about an Enquiry into Scientology.

8. All this has several extraordinary features:

(1) Scientology orgs do not work with children, retarded or otherwise, do not accept the sick or treat the insane.

(2) The two scandals came from activities in the UK in no way connected with official or approved Scientology.

(3) I did not write the book which prompted any of these actions.

(4) No org person or org or Scientologist in good standing was involved in either scandal or upset.

(5) The press, uniformly and wholly incorrectly tied it all in to me personally though at the time of the “Death Lesson” scandal I had been out of the UK for months.

(6) Lord Balniel the attacking MP, is interested only in the same subject retarded children, not in general mental health.

(7) All this adds up peculiarly. We are being knocked about for actions we do not do in a field where we do not work by a group which miscalls itself a Mental Health Association whereas it is really only a retarded children activity.

(8) Balniel went out of his own field to attack a group not doing anything he inferred or even in his field of interest.

(9) A closer look at Balniel and his group would probably develop interesting data as it causes trouble (a) for anyone seeking to work in the field of retarded children or children and (b) attacks groups which do not work in this field.

(10) Thus one wonders what is behind all the facade. Anyone interested in working with retarded children is apparently attacked and the retarded children group not only miscalls itself but attacks in the field of mental and spiritual work.

(11) One more datum — there is a “school” somewhere in the vicinity of Saint Hill, worked in by a Robin Harper (1958) last reported in the US but once a UK Scientologist and probably in our Central Files, where the children of famous parents are left while their parents tour. In this school according to Harper who worked there as an attendant, vicious psychiatric techniques are used as a matter of ordinary school discipline and that most of the children had become neurotic or psychotic as a result. This possibly could be connected with the Balniel groups and should be looked up in any investigation of psychiatry. The Jones connection with Balniel should also be looked over. There is something very odd about all this. We should take an interest. Is there some sort of a raid on children going on? There is certainly something peculiar hidden there.

L. RON HUBBARD

Notes