Maurice Kirk

HM Tax Haven Channel Islands

September 2010 - Posts

I launch this new blog in the light of the current conduct of our Welsh police, HM Crown Prosecution Service and HM Attorney General, while both England and Wales's HM judiciary deliberately turn a blind eye. I will, from time to time, add anecdotes, HM documents such as HM internal memos that have come my way, picked up in those ten wasted years, as a stark warning to others, as to just what a place Guernsey and Jersey really are, compared with the United Kingdom, whatever the government.

Breaking News:

Key videos: We see Maurice being interviewed in Jersey in Dec 2010 and talking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, in June 2008. Here he introduces himself to a meeting of the Forum for Stable Currencies at the House of Lords, on March 9, 2010. In July 2010, Maurice speaks to the British Constitution Group in Stoke on Trent. For first-time visitors, a complementary and introductory blog offers a one-page summary of his ordeals and battles. Our online petition asks for Fair Trials and Compensation instead of an effective remedy before national authorities.
  • In Prison and on Hunger Strike

    George Foulkes MP raised questions in the House of Commons in November1984 concerning my complaints supported by his letter as follows:

    HOUSE of COMMONS
    LONDON SW1A 0AA

    9th November 1984

    Rt Hon Leon Brittan QC MP
    Home Secretary
    50 Queen Anne's Gate
    London
    SW1H 9AT.

    Dear Leon,

    I am writing to you in connection with Mr Maurice Kirk, currently serving a prison sentence at the States prison, Guernsey.  I appeal to you on humanitarian grounds and in the interests of justice to use your powers under section 26 (2) of the Criminal Justice Act 1961, to transfer Mr Kirk to a mainland prison for the remainder of his sentence.

    The prison governor has freely admitted that the building and staff are incapable of providing Mr Kirk with minimum standards expected by a court.  Mr Kirk is kept in solitary confinement.  All his mail is censored, thus denying him confidential communication with his solicitors in England.  In addition numerous letters to his solicitors and MP's have been confiscated due to what the prison has described as "of indeterminate length".

    As a result of what Mr Kirk sees as prejudice, his health is deteriorating and you will know that he has spent much of the past few months on hunger strike.  In addition he claims that medical attention has been refused him from 3 separate practices on the island.  These factors have contributed to a great strain on Mr Kirk's wife.

    According to people who have met the Kirks, both are close to breakdown and see transfer to a mainland jail as the only hope.

    You are aware of my criticisms of the islands and of their constitutional relationship with the U.K.  Please appreciate that my appeal to you for an urgent transfer for Mr Kirk has no direct link with these criticisms.  It is on humanitarian grounds and in order to ensure Mr Kirk a fair hearing.

    Yours sincerely 

    George Foulkes Esq.MP

    -----------------------------

    On 8 November 1984 the Governor of the Prison supplied me with details of 35 letters they were prepared to admit had been stopped.  By this time I realised in the region of 60 letters had been stopped going out.

    COPY OF HAND-WRITTEN LETTER FROM THE GOVERNOR

    List of stopped letters: (3rd edition) - 8.11.84

     

    Date:   3/9/84

    Letter No

    To

     

    240

    Press Council

     

    241

    Evening Post

     

    247

    Deputy Lihou

     

    255

    Deputy Le Cheminant

     

    235

    G Foulkes MP

     

    270

    League of Gentlemen

     

    253

    NCCL

     

    272

    Secretary, Mortimer House

     

    256

    Legal Action Group

     

    258

    Mr Meeks MP

     

    271

    Mrs Kirk

     

    249

    Prison Reform Trust

     

    236

    Mike Dunn Esq

     

    269

    Lord Longford

     

    238

    Sir B Slade

     

    263

    Attorney General-Jersey

     

    250

    Shirley Williams MP

     

    257

    International Human Rights

     

    265

    Secretary of State - Home Office

     

    235

    Janet Fookes MP

     

    333

    A Dubs MP

     

    239

    Mr and Mrs Owen

     

    242

    Mr and Mrs Le Prevost

     

    237

    Andrew ?, Taunton

     

    244

    Tim et al. South Side, St Sampsons, G

     

    243

    Les? Forest, G

     

    248

    Howard League

     

    246

    Deputy A Ingrouille

     All of these letters contained enclosures of Photostat cartoons and juxtaposed cuttings/letters of 12 pages (quarto).

    5/9/84

    298

    Janet Fookes MP

     

    293

    Keyprice, Vale, G

     

    291

    M Dunn - Jersey

     

    299

    Lord Elton

     

    292

    G Foulkes MP

     

    290

    Alf Dubs MP

     

    297

    Alf Dubs MP

    Letters suppressed under Prison Administration Ordinance 1959 Sections 67/4 and 108/3.

    Total number of letters despatched to date approximately 800....over 2000 before release.

    Signed             Mr Crowson

                            Governor - States Prison


                                                                            21st August, 1984

    PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE

    Dear Janet   [Fookes MP]

    I am now able to reply to your letter of 11th July to David Waddington with which you enclosed this one from Mr Maurice J Kirk in connection with his recent legal proceedings in Guernsey. I should say at the outset that since you wrote, Mr Kirk has been convicted on a charge of contempt and sentenced to a term of eight months imprisonment. I understand that he has lodged an appeal against conviction and sentence.

    As you are aware, Guernsey is not part of the United Kingdom but a dependent territory of the British Crown, which, in general, is responsible for its own domestic affairs. The administration of justice in Guernsey is, by constitutional convention, wholly within the competence of the Insular authorities and it would therefore be inappropriate for the home secretary to seek to intervene in individual cases.

    I am however assured by the Guernsey authorities that in accordance with established procedure in Guernsey, Mr Kirk was given the opportunity to select an advocate for his defence, but I understand that he took the somewhat unusual course of selecting one from the 27 offered by picking a name from a hat.

    Mr Kirk subsequently indicated that he did not wish the advocate to represent him and made no attempt to engage the services of another.

    With regard to Mr Kirk's claims that he was denied access to law books and facilities for the preparation of his defence, I understand that the Guernsey prison authorities responded to all his requests for books, but that not all of these requests were available. They do not accept that he was denied any reasonable facilities for which provision is made in the prison (Administration) Ordinance 1959.

    (THE LORD ELTON)

    In October,1984 having apparently exhausted all local remedies I went on hunger strike for the second time for reasons outlined in the following letters:

    Copy of letter from Maurice J Kirk from Ozanne Ward, Princess Elizabeth Hospital, Guernsey

                                                                              dated 15th Nov.84

    To the President
    Prison Board
    States of Guernsey

    Dear Madam,

    I am on hunger strike because

    1)  I have applied to a higher court in the U.K. concerning my conviction and vindictive sentence and your insular authority REFUSE to send me to appear in person because you say it is TOO EXPENSIVE to travel there.  (See newspaper report)

    2)  False information was given to the jurats before sentencing by Day, the solicitor-general, concerning time on remand thereby affecting my release date.  This could be notified without further delay.

    3)  A charge of OVER 17 MONTHS AGO against me will not be brought to court because the evidence will expose the conspiracy of the authorities and others to sell my building and contents in 1983.

    4)  The various authorities will not answer letters and supply transcripts and tapes of hearings - ALL PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

    ANY OTHER PRISONER WOULD BE ON PAROLE AFTER SUCH AN INJURY CAUSING HOSPITALISATION.

    Yours faithfully

    Signed  Maurice J Kirk

     

    Mr R P Bulling
    Privy Council Office
    Whitehall
    LONDON SW1                                                                                                         

    Your reference CIM/84  30/7/8

    24th April, 1985

    Dear Mr Bulling

    I attach for your information a copy of an article from the Guernsey Evening Press and Star of 17th April, 1985 about Mr Maurice Kirk, a well known correspondent from Guernsey, concerning his wish to appeal to the privy council about the Jersey court of appeal's decision which is outlined in the article.

    As you will see, the possible case is some way off, but I thought that you might wish to be aware of it.

    Yours sincerely

    D R N BROWN

    E2 Division

     

    About a year later I came into possession of several internal memos, three of which I now include for clarity.

    This one was attached to the 5 September 1984 letter from the Privy Council to me.

    The Privy Council registrar continues to refuse to conform or deny their authenticity.

     

    Mr Bulling - (117)

    Thank you for your note.

    I have written to our friend Kirk and a copy of my letter is attached for your retention, plus a copy of his letter, the original of which I have retained for our file.

    Having now stuck my neck out, I doubt whether you will be troubled with further correspondence from this particular prison!

    Your file no. 303.256 is also returned herewith.

    D Rushton
    CHIEF CLERK


        TOUGH                                           Greffes

    MAJESTY'S GREFFIER                              Royal Courts

     REGISTRAR - GENERAL                            Guernsey

                 OF

               BIRTHS

    MARRIAGES AND DEATHS

    TELEPHONE GUERNSEY 25277                 

     

    REF:                                                       3rd March, 1987

    OUR REPLY

    QUOTE REF: 58/3/11

    M.J.Kirk, Esq.
    Anchor Veterinary Clinic
    The Bridge
    St.Sampson's
    Guernsey.

    Dear Sir,

    I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 2nd March, 1987 which I have referred to the deputy bailiff.  I am directed to reply as follows:-

    1.  The court is not prepared to entertain an application by you to hear the tape recording of proceedings on 28th January, 1985.  You have already been supplied by me with a duly certified transcript.

    2.  The court has no power "to order the prison authorities to release proof of your correspondence".  You should address any such request to the prison governor.

    Your cheque for £10 is returned herewith.

    Yours faithfully


  • Guernsey guards its secrets of year under Nazi rule

    Guernsey guards its secrets of year under Nazi rule

    Attempts to show the people of Guernsey how islanders collaborated with the *** have been thwarted.

    Nick Cohen reports

    Fifty years after the German invasion of the Channel Islands, Guernsey's main public hall has refused to stage an account of how the island's wartime leaders helped send three Jewish women to their deaths.

    The decisions to deny a venue to Theresa, by Julia Pascal, has led to accusations that the island wants to hide from its history.

    For the play is not only a critically acclaimed piece of theatre, but a chronicle based on documents from the occupation, which Ms Pascal was shown by ‘islanders with a conscience'.

    Included in the archives which are closed to the public, were letters to the German Feldkommandantur from Victor Carey, Guernsey's senior wartime administrator. They detail how local officials gave the Germans information on Jewish refugees, cross examined others who were suspected of not being from ‘pure Aryan Stock' and seized the property of those who fled when the Germans came.

    Last week the association controlling the St James concert hall in St Peter Port rejected an attempt by Maurice Kirk, a local vet, to book the theatre for two nights. Kirstin Simon, the association's director, said ‘All I can say is that the committee did not think it was appropriate to accept the booking. People from the mainland don't understand.  It's a very, very, delicate subject.'

    Ms Pascal said yesterday that she was angered by the decision but not surprised. ‘I was met by a wall of silence when I went to Guernsey. The archives were closed and people didn't want to talk about what had happened'.

    She believes that one reason for the refusal is that emphasis she places on Carey's role.

    When collaboration on Guernsey has been discussed, attention has concentrated on Chief Inspector William Sculpher, head of the island's police force during the war. He was a London policeman nicknamed ‘Parson Joe' who ponderously obeyed the orders of his superiors, until he was sent to an internment camp by the Germans, possibly for stealing rations.

    Carey, by contrast, was an islander and member of what is still, a leading political family on Guernsey. The son of a major general, he was a barrister and member of the Channel Islands Yacht Club, who rose to become Bailiff - president of the Guernsey legislature, the States - from 1935 to 1946.

    After the fall of France in June 1940, the Channel Islands were indefensible. Officials left to contend with the German occupation had the choice of resigning and facing possible punishment of serving their new masters.

    Carey stayed in his post and, as the documents show, helped implement one of the Nazi's first demands that the Island's parliament accept German anti-semitic legislation and identify all Jews. 

    On 29 October 1940, Carey told the Feldkommandantur

    ‘Regarding the registration of Jews, I have the honour to report that the Order which accompanied your letter was communicated to the Royal Court, .. (where it) was registered and published.  I can assure you there will be no delay, in so far as I am concerned, in furnishing you with the information you require.  I have the honour, Sir, to be your obedient servant, Victor Carey.'

    There were only a few people on Guernsey to furnish information on.  Theresa Steiner was one.

    She fled from Vienna when she was 22 after the Nazi take-over of Austria in 1938 and became a nanny with a Kent family. When war broke out, Miss Steiner and the children were sent to the Channel Islands.

    As an Austrian, Miss Steiner was technically an enemy alien and she was obliged to hand her passport to Sculpher.   8  weeks before the invasion, islanders who knew her, have alleged she begged the policeman to allow her to leave for England.  He refused and she was sent to work as a nurse.  By 25 November, Sculpher had given Carey the names and addresses of five Jewish women on Guernsey and investigated many others.

    Meanwhile other sections of the island's bureaucracy were enforcing fresh legislation. Carey was able to tell the Feldkommandantur Boosch on 4 December that Guernsey's Custodian of Business and Industry had seized an underclothing business abandoned by a woman.

    On 17 June 1941 Carey told the Feldkommandantur that he ‘had the honour' of ensuring that a third measure against the Jews, the severest yet, had been registered and published in the local newspaper. It described those whom the Germans deemed Jewish and said they should be sacked by their employers.

    A year later the Germans sent Theresa Steiner and two other refugees - Auguste Spitz and Marianne Grunfeld - from Guernsey to the Auschwitz concentration camp.  She was 26 when she was gassed.

    Carey was knighted in 1945 for his services during the occupation .   He died in 1957 aged 86.

    [and his gibbering alleged grandson put me in prison 21 times]

    Copy of letter published along with article

    Crest

    The Controlling Committee

    States of Guernsey

     

    Elizabeth College
    Guernsey

    26 November 1940

    Feldkommandantur 515,
    Nebenstelle
    Grange Lodge Hotel
    GUERNSEY

    Sir

    In reply to your letter of 22nd instant regarding the nationality of the Jews residing in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, I have the honour to enclose herewith a report form the Inspector of Police on the subject.

    I am, Sir,

    Yours faithfully

    Acting President

  • Clameur de Haro [Norman law procedure for serving a prohibitve injunction]

    Clamour de Haro [Norman law procedure for serving a prohibitve injunction]

    Greffe, Royal Court, Guernsey

    15 July 1983

    Mr M J Kirk
    Anchor Veterinary Clinic,The Bridge
    St Sampsons

     

    Dear Sir

    I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 13 July 1983.

    I am not aware of any United Kingdom ‘department overseeing the Crown Officers and the Law in Guernsey'.

    Yours faithfully

     

    PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE
    WHITEHALL
    LONDON SW1A 2AT

    29 July 1983

    Dear Sir

    Thank you for your letter of the 20 July.

    I am afraid that I am not aware of any government department with authority to investigate the matters to which you refer, and can only suggest that you should take your own legal advice about them

     

    Crest

    PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE
    WHITEHALL
    LONDON SW1A 2AT

    18 August 1983

    In reply to your letter of the 13 August I am afraid that I have nothing to add to the Clerk of the Council's letter of the 29 July (copy enclosed) except to mention that the Privy Council has no responsibility for either the appointment or the acts of the Guernsey ‘Crown Officers'.

     

    Crest

    Home Office
    Queens Anne's Gate
    London SW1H 9AT

    October 1983

    Dear Mr Kirk

    Thank you for your letter of 12 October to the Home Secretary enclosing a copy of a letter addressed to the Chief Officer of the Guernsey Police.

    We have noted the points you make but I am afraid there is nothing I can usefully add to earlier correspondence except to stress that the Home Secretary has no power to intervene in this matter.

    Yours sincerely

    Crest

    The Bailiff, Guernsey

    23 August 1983

    M J Kirk Esq
    States Prison
    GUERNSEY

    Dear Sir

    I am directed by the Bailiff to refer to your letter of the 22 August 1984, and to inform you that any complaints concerning the Guernsey Police Force must be made to the Law Officers of the Crown and any complaints against the Crown Officers must be made to the Home Office.

     

    Crest

    Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Guernsey

    Dear Mr Kirk

    I am writing to acknowledge your letter PL.22 dated the 13 August about the Clameur de Haro which you have raised.

    I understand that you were advised by Her Majesty's Procureur on a letter dated 22 June 1983 that any alleged contempt of the Clamuer de Haro would be a civil matter and not one for the Law Officers or the Police and that you were further advised to consult our Advocate.

  • Opening Shop

     

    MAURICE J KIRK BVSC MRCVS

    ANCHOR VETERINARY CLINIC

    La Rue Cauchee
    St Martin's
    Guernsey

    DAY, EVENING AND SUNDAY, CONSULTATIONS BY APPOINTMENT,

    INCLUDING EMERGENCIES

    Tel 35321

  • 7 March 1990: To the Clerk of the Court of Appeal

    7 March 1990

    The Clerk of the Court of Appeal
    Royal Court House
    St Peter Port

    Dear Sir

    The Channel Islands' prosperity was founded on piracy and in particular against English merchantmen.  After the war, Sir Winston Churchill swore never to set foot on this island, because of the collaboration of the island administration with the enemy.  The UK tax-payers subsidise the Channel Islands for millions of pounds every year unbeknown to either. The indigenous section of the Guernsey community has suffered appalling injustices under an oligarchy driven by avarice, the control of which is held by just a few interbred families who will stop at nothing to retain the local people as serfs and exploit other British subjects who choose to come and live on this British Island.

    HM Government, ultimately responsible for the administration of the Channel Islands, allows the banks of multinational companies to use the islands for tax avoidance if not evasion, in return for their support, with no benefit, to either the UK taxpayer or Guernsey resident not with the ‘chosen few'.  The judicial system in Guernsey and possibly Jersey, is incestuously inter-twined with the executive in both the UK and Channel Islands to maintain the status quo.

    As an Englishman perusing my right through the court for what is lawfully mine, I specifically asked that my partnership swindle, instigated by corrupt local lawyers, who ran a cartel, go before an impartial tribunal (as per Article 6 of the European Charter for Human Rights) but what have you done?

    You tell me today you have handed my applications to the Court of Appeal concerning my partnership swindle to the only Court of Appeal judge residing this week who has strong Channel Island ‘connections'.

    My letter to you of 1 March 1990 stated that even though visiting Court of Appeal judges are subjected to the disgusting track record this island has of corruption and that they have to keep their mouths shut because that are on some form of penance with the promises of promotion later in the real world, I ask that you remove the papers immediately from Sir Godfrey Le Quesne and place them before an apparent independent visiting QC (QC meaning Queens Council not Quaintly Corrupt) as is the meaning of the letters of the reject attorneys De Vic Carey and Day, the prosecution of Guernsey who help vote on the permanent jury.

    Yours faithfully

    Maurice J Kirk

  • Official Transcript: 10 December 1988

    OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

    EXTRACT

    FRIDAY 10 OF DECEMBER 1988

    IN THE MAGISTRATES COURT

    Before

    John Anthony Cecil Walkey Gillett, Esquire

    Magistrate

    THE LAW OFFICER OF THE CROWN

    -v-

    MAURICE JOHN KIRK

     

    HM DEPUTY GREFFIER

    For the record Mr Kirk, is your full name Maurice John Kirk?

    THE DEFENDANT

    Sir, over the lunchtime, the Prison has confirmed that I have not had a psychiatric report prepared...

    MAGISTRATE

    Mr Kirk, would you please be silent and listen to the charge being read

    THE DEFENDANT

    .... Inaudible).  And if you have one I would please ask to have sight of it before this case continues

    MAGISTRATE

    A copy was sent to the Prison on Friday - on er - when was it Mr Dorey?

    HM DEPUTY GREFFIER

    Yesterday afternoon.

    MAGISTRATE

    Yesterday afternoon.

    THE DEFENDANT

    Sir, the prison has no knowledge and has nothing in their records

    MAGISTRATE

    ... on (inaudible) .  Mr Kirk.  Mr Kirk would you kindly be quiet and answer the charges which are to be read to you.

    THE DEFENDANT

    I request legal representation.

    MAGISTRATE

    Your request is declined

    THE DEFENDANT

    I request Legal Aid

    MAGISTRATE

    Mr Kirk, if you continue to behave in this way I shall you taken down and remanded in custody until Monday.   I have a busy afternoon.  Now, will you kindly be silent and listen to the charge read and taken your - and make your plea.

    I, Lynette M Baker, hereby certify the foregoing to be correct and complete extract, prepared to the best of my skill and ability from the tape-recording of the proceedings in the case.

    Signed: L M Baker

    16 October 1989

  • Guernsey Freemansory - Doyle's Lodge of Fellowship No 84

    Filed under: ,
    Guernsey Freemasonry - Doyle's Lodge of Fellowship No 84

    Masons relevant to my Clameur de Haro (prohibitive injunction) to prove the conspiracy by lawyers, purchasing veterinary surgeon, judiciary and executive over the partnership dispute.

    List of Officers (20)

     

    MJM Tostevin

    Lawyer who drafted the contract for my sick partner to sign, it stating the purchaser's money to be withheld for one year in case I found out and succeeded in court to reverse the sale 

    HA Harwood

    Lawyer, partner of my lawyers in dispute

    N King

    Police Doctor falsifying evidence for my imprisonment, despite Royal Court ordering his partner to give evidence of his perjury (Up the Crane protest)

    List of Members (42)

     

    Sir Charles Frossard

    Toytown mayor AND judge of Royal Court/Court of Appeal

    D Randall

    Lawyer, one of many who refused to act for me

    AW De Putron

    Permanent member of the Island's Government

    AC Bulstrode

    Permanent member of the jury for both civil and criminal cases,   voted in by the Island's Government, fellow jurats and prosecution!

    J Carey

    Permanent member of the jury etc.

    Dr Seth-Smith

    My mentally sick Partner's doctor whose practice refused to send him for proper care in the UK

    F Beattie

    Father of lawyer

    Hawkins

    Relation of Taunton Chief Superintendent?

    Carey de Vic G.

    Member of the Church Synod

    Prosecutor who committed perjury before the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London, now Toytown mayor and judge of the Royal Court/Court of Appeal having instructed stopping my sixty odd prison letters, copying letters from MP's/Solicitors in the UK and ordering over 25 unlawful imprisonments on me.

    R Perrot

    My lawyer's partner in the dispute also acting for my sick partner, without my knowledge.  His name was taken out of my top hat in Court when I was ordered to pick a lawyer only within the Island.  Ferbrache, my lawyer and his partner refused 18 times to communicate with me in prison, during the cases.

    GR Rowland

    Director of Island's only newspaper withholding publication of facts in court. Partner with ACK Day, now Prosecutor, censured by the Chambre de Discipline due to his conduct in the Gillow housing scandal. The same prosecutor who arranged the forging of the charge sheet (disorderly conduct altered to contempt of court in the police station while the full Royal Court were kept waiting). This caused my almost 10 months sentence to clash with my partnership civil action.  ACK Day drafted the original partnership contract proving my rights to succession.

    NM Machon

    Jurat of the Royal Court who determined my partnership in the judgement of September 1984 retrospectively by 18 months despite the Clameur de Haro registration. Later sitting as a jurat with fellow jurat B Joy as Lieutenant Bailiff (the magistrate I arrested), when they dismissed my applications from prison that included writ of habeas corpus, release of prison stopped letters, access to independent  lawyer. Later Frossard, sitting alone, also dismissed my applications.

    Many members yet to be researched.

  • Play 'distorts' collaboration allegations

    MJK/DHG/df/2000/guernsey

    2 April 2000

    Play 'distorts' collaboration allegations

    1.12.90 by Shaun Green

    Blatant censorship by the island's authorities preventing islanders from learning the truth about collaboration in the Second World War, according to vet Maurice Kirk and the director of a London play which the Friends of St James Association have refused to sanction.

    Association President Conseillor Bob Chilcott says that the play, Theresa, which is about the treatment of Jews in occupied Guernsey is ‘disgusting and inappropriate for production at St James'.

    Mr Kirk applied to hire the St James hall for a production of Theresa on 15 and 16 February next year and was asked to submit a copy of the script for examination by the director of St James and the association council.

    Mr Chilcott says that the play, which is based on the true story of Theresa Steiner, a Jewish music professor from Vienna living in Guernsey during the Occupation was judged to be ‘disgusting and not the sort of production which St James would wish to put on in its concert hall'.

    ‘It was so distasteful that the council were not prepared to put any pressure on the director - it was quite clearly not our sort of production'.

    The council wrote to Mr Kirk stating that the play was inappropriate and that St James was not technically well enough equipped to stage such a theatrical event.  Mr Chilcott suggested that Mr Kirk apply to Beau Sejour, which would be a more suitable venue.

    Mr Kirk says that this is nonsense.  He alleged that the true issue behind the refusal is that the play touches ‘the tip of the iceberg of collaboration'.

    Mr Kirk says that while he does not think the play wholly historically accurate, he had met the writer and producer, Julia Pascal, and booked the theatrical company to come to Guernsey in February 1991 before setting off on a European tour.

    He agrees that Beau Sejour would be ideal but is fully booked on the dates in question and he has written to parish halls in the hope of finding a venue.

    Mr Kirk says that if necessary, he will knock through two partition walls in his surgery to make a room large enough to seat 60 people for the play.

    He disputes that the concert hall is not equipped to stage the play.  Having seen the play he believes that, although St James is not ideal, the play could easily be produced there.

    Theresa is running at The Garage Theatre in London and has been described by Time Out as a ‘stunning' performance with enough freshness and intelligence to put it in a class of its own.

    Director and writer Julia Pascal, the first female direction of the National Theatre, says the decision by St James is ‘horrendous' and an act of direct censorship by Guernsey's authorities.

    She is keen and willing to stage the production ‘As it is about Guernsey it seems wholly appropriate to stage it in Guernsey'.

    She says that a whole generation of Guernsey people born after the war are  unaware of the true extent of collaboration which, in this case, led to the deportation of at least three Jewish women.

    A local military historian who has seen the play in London says ‘while I applaud the efforts of Mr Kirk and Miss Pascal to bring the issue to public notice there are some historical inaccuracies which disturb me.

    She says that the play has an ‘awkward balance' of historical fact and writer's licence.

    For example, in the play Theresa has a grown-up son who commits suicide yet, in reality, Theresa was only in her twenties during the Occupation.

    She says the play addresses a sensitive subject in a distorted fashion which might mislead the non historian.  She would not like to see the play shown in its present form, but welcomes broaching the subject.

    Photos and video soon on web after my island visit shortly, heavily disguised.

    A little more later, boys and girls,  AFTER THE COMMERCIAL BREAK....


     

  • When I'm 64 there must be a Party! Bastille Week in Brittany...

    To my dear old friends of Guernsey, old clients and those who quietly kick against the pricks!

    A party for you all

    On condition you tip off my soul mates of Alderney ..... and that bunch of ‘ragged dissidents' of Jersey, too many to mention!

    We are to drink a toast to Gerald and Yvonne Gillow.

    Ah, the party. It will commence in Brittany for Bastille week

    Details shortly on this web site unless my old faithful secretary in the Vale tips you off first.

    When I'm 64 there must be a Party!  Bastille Week in Brittany...

    There will be ‘knees up' for friends, wives and children, known and unknown, of the last 60 odd years.

    Come, all of you  and relax in France, eat oysters and sip a good Chablis and sing a Beatles song...... those of Mountlands School (1948-51), Taunton School (1951-63), those I met canoeing down Danube, Rhine and across English Channel (1963), Bristol University (1963-1969) [I am eligible for 3 years of annual graduation parties], the vet's first peddle car team, Royal Air Force, Bristol University Air Squadron (1963.... to infinity), those I met hitching around 8000 miles of USA and Canada on £5, around Australia, New Guinea and NZ in '67, parachuting friends across Europe, mountaineering comrades in Snowden, Lake District and French Alps.

    Bridport, Dorset, clients and friends  (1969-70), Taunton, Somerset, clients and family friends  (1937- to infinity), pilots on my CPL  course at Kidlington, Oxford (1977), flying instructor's course, Goodwood (1977), ATPL course, London (1978), shooting, fox hunting, duck shooting and flying friends of Eire and Northern Ireland especially Michael's friends, from all over France while I was buying ‘real aircraft' (1970- until now), friends  from seven British prisons, Alderney, the whole island is invited, especially those who helped me load all those brandy bottles on Town Beach and my special friends and voters of Guernsey who stuck with me for those 10 miserable years.

    South Wales.....my old clients and those who backed me, pilot friends and the honest few I met in court and police stations....be there, frilly knickers and all!

    My friends between Haverford West, West Wales and Sydney, Australia in the 2001 London to Sydney Air Race to that ‘coat hanger' bridge where those police helicopters surrounded me for, for some reason?

    AND those I met in around New Zealand Air Race, ‘flyabout' around Aussie, from Darwin, Australia to Japan1 Oh, special memories of Saba Flying Club, Borneo, Taiwan Flying Club, South Korea and magic people of Hokkaido, Japan while I waited for a 30 knot tail wind at 12,000ft...please all come, not forgetting a special chap from Japan's CAA {CAB}.

    USA boys and girls!  Florida, Maine!  Too many to count....And all those I met on flight from Sun ‘n Fun to New Orleans jazz {"Steamboat Willie BE THERE"} and on around Texas with Jo in NW with tool box!

    And especially that lovely Deputy Police Officer who drove me in handcuffs, around 100 miles, from Waco Prison to Texas State Lunatic Asylum for certification...be there, family and all.   And let us not forget my friends of St Vra et environs de Bretagne.

    Venue

    Bastille week 09....  11th July to 19th July (or until the wine runs out) at ‘Le Puits aux Papillions', St Doha, Merdrignac, Brittany 22230, France. (Runway big enough for a real aircraft).

    Accommodation

     ..... hotels, caravan , a boat, 4 cottages in various states of disrepair, a house, tents or ‘a la belle etoille'!

    Transport

    Flights to Dinard, St Brieuc and Rennes, vessels to Roscoff and St Malo, trains to St Malo or Rennes....I will organise pick up by bike, motor bike, sailing boat or aircraft.... even a car!

    WATCH THIS BLOG FOR UPDATES AS I NEED TO KNOW NUMBERS FOR CATERING AND BEDS!  

    Just bring a tooth brush! 

    About Maurice Kirk

    Maurice was born 12th March1945, a war baby, in Taunton, Somerset, West of England, within a final family of four brothers and one sister while mother and father were working 24/7 to run a country veterinary practice. Country pursuits very much dominated his spare time from most sports with his passion still for hunting , shooting and fishing! Maurice is currently trying to fly to South Africa in his WW2 Piper Cub,registration G-KURK. His other D-Day Cub, G-KERK, is destined, on skis, for a rather taller mountain after his promise to Sir Edmond, six years ago. Meanwhile, the task of obtaining justice in the UK courts, in order to practice veterinary surgery, is proving to be somewhat elusive. Authority has quite another agenda.

     

  • Guernsey: HM 'buck' stops where?

    HM 'buck' stops where?

    Whilst on a lengthy hunger strike in 'solitary', in the 1811 built freezing prison of Guernsey way back in '84, dear George Foulkes MP and Alf Dubs MP, vilified on the islands, asked questions in the House of Commons as to just how the Guernsey Authorities could be allowed to get away with stopping my letters getting out, some sixty-three of them to lawyers, family and friends and diverting incoming mail via their quaint but nefarious style HM Crown Prosecution Service? Why, twenty-one times, was I gaoled with the majority of charges being then dropped just a  few days later or for nineteen, many months later, if it was not to destroy my ability to run my single handed veterinary practice? Try and guess what the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons did about it? 

    Why was I repeatedly refused independent legal representation with definitely no lawyer allowed from England and having to face their permanent jury, time and time again, partly voted on by the same HM prosecution conducting the incestuous world of Noddy Land?  Twenty-five years later, and now I am in the Principality of Wales. Has anything really changed?  Is it Deja vu? 

    I have now, in 2009, dug out a series of HM letters caused by my pleas for help from my prison bed. HM dominates the replies from both the UK executive and Guernsey Insular Authority. Out of prison in 1984, I am backwards and forwards to Downing Street court cases, eligible as resident of a dependant territory, like the proverbial yo-yo!

    After leaving Guernsey in 1992, by rubber boat, I was again before the HM Privy Council, but with the RCVS joining in using the same HM immunity to prosecution as the games currently played from Whitehall RIGHT NOW. 

    A RAY OF HOPE

    The new President of America, Barack Obama, has already expressed views, similar to mine, about wiping out the deceitful tax haven industry around the world. But will he go further and introduce democracy to our islands?

    A series of letters and newspaper cuttings hurriedly put on this blog, as an indication of the deceit riddled environment I am leaving, shortly, (for another?)

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