CONTENTS:

• THE BRITISH FAN IN HIS NATURAL HAUNT by William F. Temple
• RELIGION AND SCIENCE-FICTION by Albert Griffiths
  
• PERSONALITY PARADE AT THE CONVENTION by Ted Carnell
• COSMIC CASE No. 3, PART 2 by D.R.Smith
• SCIENCE-FICTION ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT
• PRELUDE TO THE CONQUEST OF SPACE by Arthur C. Clarke

and:

• REPORT ON QUESTIONNAIRE #2

The British Fan in his Natural Haunt ...by William F. Temple Religion and Science-Fiction ...by Albert Griffiths Personality Parade at the Convention ...by Ted Carnell Cosmic Case No 3, Part 2 ...by D.R.Smith Science Fiction Association Executive Committee Report Prelude to the Conquest of Space ...by Arthur C. Clarke

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Editor: Maurice K. Hanson, 25 Bernard St., London W.C.1., England.
Associates: Edward J. Carnell, Arthur C. Clarke

Subscription Rates:

2d a copy, 12 issues 1/9d. 5 cents a copy, 12 issues 45 cents.

As anyone might have deduced from wads of newspaper articles pinned on the walls, Eric is (like myself) an H.G.Wells addict. Wells has written some 75 books, and Eric has 49 of 'em. (But here I score, he hasn't got Wells's best book "The Undying Fire".) He thinks H.G.'s best stf. work is his first, "The Time Machine".

I think the volume I coveted most of all in his collection (because it's unique) is a bound collection of stories and science-fantasy articles selected from the STRAND MAGAZINE for years back. There were the original short science-fiction yarns of Wells and Doyle, some of them finely illustrated in colour, the Sherlock Holmes stories and science-fiction stories by authors I'd never heard of, but which looked most interesting, besides many striking articles and the inevitable "facts".

This binding business is one of Eric's favourite rackets. He's got all the AMAZING, WONDER and ASTOUNDING from 1930 to date in a serried row of mostly bound blue covers. He prizes them greatly and watched me anxiously as I peered into one. As I couldn't hold my breath indefinitely I didn't investigate these as thoroughly as I'd have liked. Previous to 1930 his collection was a bit ragged, he informed me shame-facedly. But, brightening up, added that his collection of TALES OF WONDER was absolutely complete.

He keeps an ever-growing card index, already a yard long, of every magazine science-fiction story he's got, mostly hand-printed with title, author, personal comments, date and page, so that he can locate any story at a moment's notice. Of all those hundreds of cards the one he takes out most is "Paradise and Iron" by Miles J. Breuer (Amazing Quarterly, Summer 1930). That, he said, is definitely his favourite story.

A French fantasy magazine with its interplanetary stories interspersed with improper (or proper) Gallic jokes and sketches, some old AIR WONDERS, one of the only two published MIRACLE TALES, and some SCIENCE AND INVENTION (1923-4) containing "The Man on the Meteor" (Ray Cummings) "Dr. Hackenshaw's Secrets" (Clement Fezendie) and C. Peyton Wertenbaker's famous "Man from the Atom". This last lot was Eric's greatest bargain. In one of those old bric-a-brac shops he'd picked them up for a penny each.

Feeling myself a mere amateur in this collecting business I took my leave. Eric saw to it that that was all I did take. For when I thanked him on his doormat for letting me take such a lot of material for this article, he interpreted me literally, and wouldn't let me go before searching me thoroughly. He didn't discover anything (apart from my pawn tickets), but I voluntarily surrendered the volume of STRAND MAGAZINE, which had been concealed in my trouser turn-up all the time.

That's the nuisance of having a social conscience.

IN FUTURE ISSUES: You may be interested to know of several of the articles we have in hand for future publication:

The Fantastic Muse by Arthur C. Clarke

The Fan in his Natural Haunt, No. 2 - Ted Carnell.

Happy Encounter by D. R. Smith

The Curse of the Collector by The Paragon

etc. etc.

One can say that for any religion to succeed truly, several things are necessary. It must take into account, in fact even be built upon, science so as to eliminate any needless friction between the two. But above all it must work. I must not be a sham fabric of delusions and quackeries, half-truths, sophistry, other-worldness, and it must be rid of the curse of non-applicability.

It is true that any truly great religion will embody in it the ideals upon which Christianity - in fact, all our religions are built. Such ideals as the brotherhood of all men, truth, kindliness, tolerance -- all these things are unchanging, are recognised by all men as worthy ideals and are the very building blocks of religion. Yet the sorry fact is that these self-same ideals are smothered in rank growths of evils - greed, bigotry and hatred fill the minds of men to an overwhelming degree, making it almost impossible for anything else to exist. Such is man's ineradicable perversity that these very ideals are made excuses for inhuman wars and atrocities. History is full of the attempts of races or creeds to force down the throats of their neighbours their own beliefs, using the sword as the necessary instrument.

It has been said that there is no real necessity for religion to mix with science. It is stated that these two elements can be kept quite separate and complete. While this may have been true a hundred

But beyond a certain limit science fails just as religions fail. A combination of the two, a recognisance of the powers of each might result, will result, in mutual benefits. Hence science and religion must combine. Or at least they must consent to wrangle and dispute. They must realize that each is complementary to the other.

For any religion to succeed the world must be in a vastly different state to that it is in today. For how can any religion be applied in a mad world? Or in a world where it is to one's advantage not to apply religious teaching.

It is here that science-fiction can play its part. It can help the world out of its madness. It can, by pointing out the present anomalies and mistakes and suggesting remedies, help to build up a sane order. It can help to obtain those conditions which are so vitally necessary for any religion to work - conditions in which hatred and greed are eradicated and unnecessary, atavistic. It can, in a way unique, act as a veritable testing-ground of new religions, for it is within its scope for the theoretical results of new religions to be studied and the mistakes and gains realized. Is it too much to ask?

Unfortunately nothing could prevail upon John Beynon Harris to address the gathering, he being of a retiring nature, but I noticed that he and Will Temple were comparing notes during the supper, and assume that something startling may come from Will in the near future.

Wally Gillings was continuously beseiged by various people - were they trying to sell mss or were they showering congratulations on TALES OF WONDER? I noted that Arthur Janser of the BIS was hurriedly running through his many synopses -- and we had to tear him away by force. Another conference took place between Wally, Les Johnson, Ken and I concerning Wally's SCIENTIFICTION, but nothing came of it. At the moment tentative plans are the STF will be merged with the new printed TOMORROW by Doug Mayer. You may gather by this that Wally finds it impossible to continue his fine mag now that ToW is quarterly.

A point worth noting was that when fixing arrangements for the Convention we impressed upon Bob the Barman that there would be no drunks in the party -- there wasn't -- but Bob himself was the nearest!

Professor A.M.Low's speech was outstanding and his presence too, and I don't think that we could have anyone better as President of the SFA. I know from a private conversation with the Prof. that he is extremely delighted to be the apex of the SFA.

One surprise we had planned unfortunately fell short. We had hoped to have Mervyn Evans, recently of Denver, Colorado, with us. Mervyn, who is a close friend of Olon Wiggins of Denver, has been living in this country for some months, but we didn't receive his address in time for him to make arrangements to get to London on the Sunday.

My greatest enjoyment was in the pleasure evident upon the faces of our younger members and friends present, while listening to the "big shots". It was well worth all the trouble in making the necessary arrangements to see the thrills they derived from the Convention.

Let's make it a bigger one next year.

The Johnson SCIENCE-FICTION SERVICE announces:
To fans who have missed

The subsequent events have been so stated as to make of this unfortunate man a villain whose depth of malice was only equalled by his shrewdness. I have had a number of skillful psychologists examine him and although they give him a fairly high IQ number they all agree that his character is too frank to conceive a plot of the depth alleged. Actually their conjectures agree with the fine kindly character his actions demonstrate when considered in the correct manner. He was honestly sorry, as who would not be, for the unfortunate Riclavech children condemned to misery in order that their pompous prigs of elders should not be disturbed by the sound of a happy laugh, and attempts to cheer them up a little. His immediate success naturally pleased him greatly and he devoted himself to spreading the radiant light of laughter in that gloomy civilization.

"He meant no harm. He thought he was benefitting the Race immensely. It is alleged that he has wrecked a great civilization. But has he? Is humour the terrible anti-cultural influence alleged?

"Reungeis Tefaillet has said that humour in the hands of the ignorant many infallibly prevents the intelligent few from developing the great plans for the advancement of culture possible to their minds. It does not occur to us that only mentally unstable cranks are seriously affected by laughter

"Where humour is prohibited these crazy plans are allowed to pass into operation, with results very detrimental to the unfortunate Race concerned. I could cite a dozen examples from the recent history of the Riclavech, but one will suffice. Some generations ago a famous thinker proposed that as starvation resulted in exceptional clarity of mind the entire Race should be starved. This is done by making the sole food the flabby fruits complained of by Captain Jenkins. Whether the intended result has been obtained is a matter of considerable doubt, but the vitality of the members of the victimised Race is so low that the slightest physical shock is sufficient to prostrate them, if not kill them outright. That is why a band of some fifty members of my Race met absolutely no resistance from billions of bitterly hostile Riclavech in their so-called wrecking of that fantastic culture.

"The fact is that only an entirely humourless Race, governed entirely by cold logic from its earliest strivings can exist without humour. For a Race with that sense to attempt its complete destruction is as fantastic as if a Race possessing eyes decided to blind those useful organs in every member of the Race, alleging that it would be easier to think clearly in absolute darkness. Humour is at once the crudest and the most subtle form of criticism. The Riclavech should be greatful that the blundering of Captain Jenkins has restored their Race to sanity.

"The appeal for our annihilation is unsoundly based in any case, for there is no such thing as a

Sir David's witnesses being chiefly philosophers in support of his theories of humour were declared by the President to be redundant and the Adjudication Committee retired for a lengthy consideraton of the case. After their return the President delivered judgement in a long speech. He said that the damage done could only be temporary whichever of the theories of the uses of humour was correct, and that Sir David had at least established the comparative harmlessness of Homo Sapiens' sense of humour to other Races. A Race, however despicable its action might prove it, could not be destroyed merely because it was a nuisance, and so Homo Sapiens must continue to exist. He could only request that the Race Homo Sapiens should cleanse itself of all such anti-social persons as the man Jenkins and his companions.

The Johnson SCIENCE-FICTION SERVICE asks:

Are you missing an additional pleasure?

WEIRD TALES
contains weird science-fiction stories by such favourites as JACK WILLIAMSON, EDMOND HAMILTON, HENRY KUTTNER, C.L.MOORE, PAUL ERNST, H.P.LOVECRAFT, L.K.ESHBACH, OTIS A. KLINE and others.

Back issues available at 8d. each post free from the Liverpool Braanch only: 46 MILL LANE, LIVERPOOL 13.

LIBRARY: The Librarian wishes to report the donation of the undermentioned books to the SFA Library: "The Hampdenshire Wonder" by J.D.Bereford (loaned by Mr. W.A.Deveraux) and " Voyage to Purilia" by Elmer Rice (loaned by A.C.Clarke). We wish to thank all members for books loaned and solicit any further additions.

SPECIAL LIBRARY ATTRACTION:On May 11th next we intend to place before our members an entirely fresh departure in the lending library field. On that date the first of a series of science-fiction classics in file form will be available for borrowing. No. 1 will be "A Selection of Short Stories of Miles J.Breuer, M.D." and will include such famous stories as "The Stone Cat", "The Riot at Sanderac" and "The Gostak and the Doshes" as well as many other favourites of the old timers. It is hoped that a new file will be added each month and the June issue will be none other than the world famous SKYLARK OF SPACE by Dr. E.E.Smith. It is hoped that comparatively new readers of science-fiction among our members will, by this new series, be able to read all the most famous of the published magazine stories.

NEW MEMBERS: We are delighted to welcome the following new members: J. Lightbrown (Nuneaton); Maurice G. Hugi (Folkestone); and Wilfred F. Cockcroft (Halifax).

OBITUARY: We deeply regret to announce the deaths during the last few weeks of two of our valued members. They were Reginald Stevens of London and J.T.Greenwood of Birmingham. We wish to tender to the relatives our deepest sympathies and regrets and are sure that all members will join us therein. We wish to make it known that Mr. Greenwood's last wish was that his valuable collection of science-fiction should be donated to the Association, and arrangements for this are now being made Mr. Stevens' collection of fan-magazines have also been sent to the Association.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:We gratefully acknowledge the following: IMAGINATION (Los Angeles Branch), SCIENCE-FICTION NEWS-LETTER (Richard Wilson Jr.): SCIENCE-FICTION FAN (Olon Wiggins); THE ASTRONAUT (Manchester Interplanetary Society); and "Conclusions of the Paisley Rocketeers' Society" (P.R.S.). Our Los Angeles Branch have also sent "The Television Detective" by David H. Heller, for which many thanks.

THE SECOND CONVENTION AND ANNUAL MEETING: We are pleased to announce that this event, held in London on April 10th last, was an unparallelled success, being attended by 43 delegates including Prof. A.M.Low, John Russell Fearn, Benson Herbert, Walter H.Gillings, I.O.Evans, John Beynon Harris, William F. Temple, Leslie J. Johnson, etc. A special official souvenir report of the Convention will be issued during May, Price 6d. Applications should be made to Headquarters as soon as possible. In brief, the following is a report of the Proceedings:

LONDON BRANCH REPORT: Owing to the Convention the London Branch meeting for April was limited to a few minutes during which a few items of branch business were conducted. The May London Branch meeting takes place at "A.O.D." on May 8th at 3 p.m. All Londoners are urged to support same.

LEEDS BRANCH REPORT: The main event of importance during March was a visit on March 20th of Messrs. K.G.Chapman and M.K.Hanson from London, and Messrs. H.E.Turner and S.Davies from Manchester. An interesting meeting was held in the evening of that day when all the visitors addressed the Leeds Branch. It has now been decided to recommence the Branch Library and members are subscribing to several scientific publications with a view to rebuilding same. On April 10th eight Leeds members made the trip to London to Attend the Convention when a good time was had by all. We wish to thank the Londoners for their excellent hospitality. Chairnman:H.Warnes, 61 Thorne Grove, Gipton, Leeds 8.

PROPOSED MANCHESTER BRANCH: An inaugural meeting will be ((held)) on May 22nd or about this date. Visitors will include delegations from Leeds and London. All interested should get in touch with H.E.Turner, 41 Longford Place, Manchester 14.

OFFICIAL CONVENTION REPORT:

If you could not attend the Convention the official report will give you verbatim speeches and all the information you want about the proceedings.

If you were present you will need some permanent record of the day's oustanding events.

Order your copy as early a possible from 59a Tremaine Road, Anerly, London S.E.20, England. Price 6d, or 12 cents. Ready during May.