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"Opium-Eating Turk"
Hoaxed Students
I
"The Age " Special Correspondent
. LONDON, Nov. 15. — Bewhiskered
Dr. Maliesh Helal, "a Turkish authority
on sociology, gave an hour's lecture in
on sociology," gave an hour's lecture in
"Wednesday extolling the pleasures of
opium eating."
An audience of nearly
100 listened intently as
he spoke in a foreign ac
cent of the "blessings of
opium," which he claimed
to have been taking for
many years without ill-
effect.
Yesterday "Dr. Helal"
was revealed as a dis
guised undergraduate who
with friends had carried
out the most successful
hoax for years.
His lecture was re
ported as genuine by two
prominent London pap
ers.
The hoaxer was Patrick
Dromgoole, secretary of
a university dramatic so
ciety, who took five
months to plan the esca
pade with fellow members
of the University Heretics
Club.
Dromgoole said : "The
audience lapped it up, so
much so that two or
three men we had
'planted' to ask pointed
questions were treated in
hostile manner.
"Everything I said was,
of course, complete rub
bish." ,
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