" PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAIRIES.”

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1920, Page 2

" PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAIRIES.”

SIR A. CONAN DOYLE’S COMMENTS.

"Have not recent cablegrams report ed you to be a believer in fairies?” a "Dominion” reporter asked Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Friday.

Sir Conan Doyle proceeded to explain

“That is not related to spiritualism,” he said. “It is a separate line of de-' velopment entirely. I mean it is not a, human line of development at all. However, this is the origin of the matter. In Yorkshire there have been photographs taken by some people—not by me—which purport to be the photographs of fairies. I was not able myself to go and see these people before I left Great Britain, but I sent a friend up to go into the matter. He was of opinion that the people were perfectly genuine. They were, in fact, two little children who had borrowed their father’s camera, and it seemed quite impossible that they could perpetrate a most elaborate fake.” -

Certainly, if there was any fake, it was not the sort of fake that children would-be likely to perpetrate, for at this stage Sir Conan Doyle produced several photographs and showed them to the . reporter. Each portrayed a child of perhaps seven years, accompanied by the prettiest little creatures, hardly more than a few inches high, and shapen in the fashion that is. a familiar memory of the days when one pored over “Elves and Fairies” picture books. In one photograph a little Puck-like personage was leaping airily upon the knee of the youngster. “We took the negatives to some of the highest photographic experts in London.” ' Sir Conan Doyle continued. "Some refused-to give an opinion at all, on the ground that it was too incredible. They could not find any flaw. Others absolutely pledged their reputation that it was absolutely impossible there could be a mistake. So I took it on myself to publish the facts in the Christmas number of the ‘Strand.’ “Since then, while I was in Australia, three more photographs were taken so that there seems to be an almost undoubted case for their truth. -Now the evidence is before the British public, and it is for them to decide. If they can pick a hole in it I shall be very much interested.”

Pointing to the little figure that has been compared to Puck, Sir Conan Doyle observed with some enthusiasm : “Wonderful little creature—all the wisdom of the ages in his face!”