From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 21:44:53 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: 2001 Tiger Tots
Message-ID: <199802011335.OAA19354@basement.replay.com>
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London Sunday Times
February 1, 1998

Arthur C Clarke sex scandal hits Charles's Sri Lanka visit

by Yvonne Ridley


 THE Prince of Wales's visit to Sri Lanka
 this week hit a new problem last night
 after Arthur C Clarke, the respected
 science fiction writer due to be knighted
 by Charles, allegedly confessed to being a
 paedophile.

 The investiture is due to take place on
 Wednesday during the prince's visit, which
 coincides with the celebrations for the
 50th anniversary of the island's
 independence.

 Downing Street said last night: "As far as
 we are concerned the investiture is still
 going ahead as planned." A spokesman
 refused to comment on the possibility of a
 forfeiture of the honour by the 80-year-old
 author of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 Clarke's revelations, published in today's
 Sunday Mirror, are bound to embarrass
 Tony Blair, who named him in his first
 new year honours as prime minister.

 Last night diplomats in Colombo, the
 island's capital, were being asked to assess
 the author's tabloid confession. If the
 report is taken at face value the ceremony
 is unlikely to go ahead.

 Buckingham Palace advisers contacted
 British embassy officials in Sri Lanka this
 year to make discreet inquiries after
 rumours about Clarke's sexuality and
 private life.

 They reported that, although Clarke was
 known to be gay, there was no evidence of
 paedophilia.

 The British-born author of more than 80
 novels, who has adopted Sri Lanka as his
 home, was unable to travel to Britain to
 receive his knighthood from the Queen
 because he is virtually confined to a
 wheelchair as a result of post-polio
 syndrome.

 In 1989 he was made a CBE for his
 services to British cultural interests in Sri
 Lanka, where he enjoys a tax-free lifestyle
 bestowed on him by the island because of
 his celebrity status.

 He previously met Charles at the British
 premiere of his Odyssey film in the 1960s,
 for which he received an Oscar
 nomination.

 Surrey-born Clarke was married briefly in
 1953 to Marilyn Mayfield, an American
 who has since died. The marriage lasted
 about six months after a whirlwind affair.

 After the split Clarke moved to Sri Lanka,
 where he now lives in a luxurious home
 surrounded by state-of-the-art technology
 and computers that allow him to keep in
 touch with friends around the world.

 His study is lined with photographs of
 celebrities and admirers of his work,
 including the Pope, Diana, Princess of
 Wales, Elizabeth Taylor and the astronaut
 Neil Armstrong.

 The news also threatens to cast a shadow
 during the royal visit for senior officials
 on the island as they have always been
 proud of the eminent author's presence
 during the past 40 years. Homosexuality is
 regarded as an offence in Sri Lanka and
 carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

 Charles's planned trip was already marred
 last week by a terrorist attack on a temple
 that was to have been the scene of the
 independence celebrations.

 The bomb killed 17 people, including a
 suicide team who drove a truck into the
 old hill capital of Kandy.

 Buddhist leaders have called for a boycott
 of this week's ceremonies in protest at
 Charles's presence. They say Britain
 sympathises with the island's separatist
 Tamil Tiger rebels. They also claim the
 Tamil Tigers, who carried out the
 bombing, have been allowed to raise
 money in London for terrorist campaigns.
 Since the bombing some Buddhist leaders
 have intensified demands for a formal
 apology from Britain for its colonial rule.

 A Foreign Office spokesman said last
 night that he fully expected Charles's visit
 to Sri Lanka to go ahead despite the
 security fears over recent terrorist
 activities.

 A report that members of the prince's royal
 protection squad would not be allowed to
 carry guns was an "administrative point"
 that would be resolved before the party
 left, he said.

 "It is an island where there is a history of
 terrorist problems with the Tamil Tigers
 and, from time to time, with explosions
 and so forth, so not unnaturally we are
 looking very closely at security," the
 spokesman said.