Wilhelm Reich and the Orgone Institute. Is the Institute on the black
list, and if so, why? My passport showed that I had been in U.S.A.
lecturing, and therefore that I was not on any black list then.
Naturally our disappointment is keen, for if we had had any sus
picion of a refusal we should have applied months ago. We'll have to
cancel our passages at once, and this means that, even if visas were
granted later, we could not possibly get berths. Something, call it pride
of work perhaps, makes us dislike begging for a reconsideration of what
should be right ... the right of educationists and psychologists to meet
and discuss the most vital subject in the world.
This is the story in brief. It is indeed a strange situation in which
thousands of Americans visit Britain this summer, sight-seeing, while
we, who have something to offer students and teachers and doctors,
are excluded from the U.S.A. And under democracy, as opposed to
totalitarianism, one would expect to be told explicitly why a visit to a
friendly country is forbidden.
[Neill added the following paragraph to the copy of the mimeo
graphed letter he sent to Reich.]
I don't know what is behind it all, Reich. If Raknes and Hoppe get
visas then it can't be the Institute that is taboo. Why the long morning
wait? Enquiry of course, but from whom? London Home Office
dossier or maybe telephone to New York. The consul was a cold fish
without any humanity at all. Ena and I both sensed we were to be
rejected. He was obviously under higher orders. It may be that all Left
Wing people are being now classed as Communists, by left wing mean
ing against the majority in education etc.
What grieves us is having to cancel our passages. Damned annoying
we are so far apart and can't react without expensive cables. My own
opinion is that there is nothing to be done, that the embassy would feel
it was losing face if it climbed down.
I am telling all who matter in New York.
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