Record of a Friendship

(Ben Green) #1
of two months ago that your visum was refused then, if you want to get
the point through according to facts.
More next time.

Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk

My dear Reich,


  • I •


October 14, 1950

Today's news of the U.S.A. ban on travel visas makes me very
downhearted, for it can mean that you and I cannot meet again. Either
world war will make it impossible, or years of American fear of com­
munism will make U.S.A. a forbidden land for even the most mildly
liberal of guests. So that our contact will have to be the very unsatis­
factory one of letter writing, and if the scare continues, letters also may
become censored.
I had a visit the other day of James Telfer, a Scots osteopath. He
and another enthusiast friend of his are much alarmed that some com­
mercial firm will begin to sell accus here, and they want to know if it is
protected by patent in Britain, and if not, can they do something about
it? I think they are right there. Interestingly enough, the osteopaths in
general are more interested in the work than the echt [genuine]
physicians. It is the tension part that attracts them of course. The two
men have carried out several of the experiments from your books and
are delighted with the results. When Lucy [Francis] had a new lump on
her face under the operation scar, she applied the small accu and it went
in a fortnight. When she told the surgeon about what she had used he
sniffed and said: "Oh, it won't do you any harm anyway."
I don't know how you will view an unqualified man experimenting,
but if the medical profession won't take it up, someone has to do it.
You will recall the many talks we had in Oslo and N.Y. about being
on the side of the adolescents in their love life. I don't think it is wise
unless they have had freedom from a young age. For instance : couple
came late to S'hill. I approved of their love. In the vacation they get
together and she becomes schwanger [pregnant] ... and turns on me as
responsible. First case of two pupils in 30 years. I am going back to the
old way, simply refusing to back up untrustworthy adolescents, and so
risking my life's work through scandal and hate and fear. No, one can
only "be on the side of' children who have had freedom from the

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