>> Statement: [Pages 23-24]

Wright dredges up a false allegation from a book written over two decades ago that L.

Ron Hubbard only went to China once: “Hubbard made two voyages to visit his parents in Guam. One trip included a detour to China…..His trip to China, which was organized by the YMCA, lasted only ten days.”

>> True Information: Mr. Hubbard took two trips to Asia. No one would consider it a big issue.

Why wouldn’t Mr. Wright report the factual information when it was available to him? Instead, he chose to republish a false allegation made 20 years ago and positively disproven.

The first Mr. Hubbard took to Asia was in May 1927 as he covers in his journal, shown in The L. Ron Hubbard Series, Early Years of Adventure, Letters and Journals. Mr. Hubbard’s journal entries are confirmed with ship manifests of the Gold Star. During this voyage, a young L. Ron Hubbard visited ports in Guam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kobe (Japan) and Manila (Philippines). He returned to the United States in July 1927 aboard the USS Nitro as shown in the same L. Ron Hubbard Series volume. [See Manifest from the Gold Star and Asian Diaries]

Mr. Hubbard returned to Asia in June 1928 aboard the USS Henderson, as covered in his diary entry of the same L. Ron Hubbard Series volume. Later, during that same time period, on November 11, 1928, Mr. Hubbard completed a tour of Beijing. In the enclosed pictures from the L. Ron Hubbard Series there is a photograph which shows Mr. Hubbard with his mother and father aboard the “marble boat” on the lake in front of the Summer Palace outside of Beijing (then commonly referred to as Peking). The caption of the photograph notes that it was taken in September 1928, when his parents came for a brief visit to see their son in Beijing. While there, on November 3, 1928, Mr. Hubbard took a one-day tour, organized by the YMCA, to visit the Great Wall. L. Ron Hubbard remained abroad and did not return to the United States until mid-July 1929, having been in Asia on his own for a full year. [See Second Asian Journal]

All of the above is covered with pictures and documentation in The L. Ron Hubbard Series, Early Years of Adventure, Letters and Journals, which Mr. Wright was directed to review last year, as the publication has been available since March 2012.

When the above facts were pointed out to Mr. Wright by an editor for The Daily Beast, Wright claimed that a second Asian voyage by Mr. Hubbard, “would have overlapped with his high school graduation which he attended in Montana.” Again, Mr. Wright’s research is wrong. L. Ron Hubbard did not attend graduation with his class in Montana. He was in Asia at the time. He returned from Asia in July 1929 as shown in the L. Ron Hubbard Series, then completed his senior year in high school and graduated in June 1930 from Woodward Preparatory School for Boys in Washington, D.C.

Documents in the L. Ron Hubbard archives support this, but Mr. Wright did not ask the Church a single question on this subject or fact check his manuscript. Had he done so we would have informed him of the following:

A letter from Helena High School, presented to George Washington University by Mr. Hubbard’s father on September 19, 1930, states that Mr. Hubbard “entered Helena High School 9-3-27 and was dropped May 11, 1928.” This coincides with his trips to Asia.
Mr. Hubbard’s father wrote in a letter of September 19, 1930, “During the summer of 1928 he [L. Ron Hubbard] returned to Guam and the school year 1928-1929 was spent in intensive prepping under the tutelage of his mother…”
James J. King, Headmaster of Woodward School for Boys, wrote on April 18, 1941: “This is to certify that Mr. Lafayette R. Hubbard met all the requirements and was graduated from the Woodward School for Boys on June 11, 1930.” It is also worth noting that Woodward Preparatory School awarded its Public Speaking Award in June 1930 to graduating Senior L. Ron Hubbard.

In sum, the correct answer to the question of how many times Mr. Hubbard visited Asia is twice—during an era when travel to Asia by a young American was indeed rare—which is what the Church has stated. Why was it necessary to argue whether Mr. Hubbard had gone to Asia once or twice, or to falsely claim that a trip would have had to overlap with a high school graduation when, in fact, he never attended the ceremony?

The Church spokesperson wrote 15 times to volunteer her assistance in making Mr. Wright’s book factually accurate including with respect to the Founder specifically.

While this may seem like esoteric details, they illustrate the lack of effort at research on Mr. Wright’s part, the lengths he will go to in order to bend the truth and his unwillingness to admit his errors even when facing clear evidence to the contrary.

>> Excerpts