Some Questions Regarding Gordon Cramer’s Theories ..

Perhaps we can have a look at Gordon Cramer’s work, in particular his claims to have found micro-writing in the Rubaiyat Jessica Harkness gave Alf Boxall in 1945 prior to his leaving Australia for a post-war tour of the South West Pacific as a Lieutenant Engineer aboard the newly commissioned cargo-vessel Crusader.

Cramer asserts that messages were hidden in this Rubaiyat by means of micro-writing, an age old skill where in one instance the Lord’s Prayer was found written on a single grain of long rice.

Cramer’s claims of micro-writing are all-encompassing as he writes that it exists within most of the characters in the Verse 70 inscription, the name Jestyn, some of the clothing worn by the woman in the illustration, the title page and publisher’s particulars and finally, within the centre-line join of the two pages where you would normally expect the binder’s stitching or glueing would be. He also claims the torn Tamam Shud slip is in fact a hidden micro message written in the* ‘Nihilst cipher with layers of modification.’ Quote  Gordon Cramer.

Given that there is evidence that in the past many people have demonstrated the skill required to write in such a fashion, what Cramer claims is that Jessica Harkness, a young Sydney based nurse aged about 25 had herself learnt such skills, however he is unable to say where she learnt to write in such a fashion *, or indeed when she found the time to do so, given that in the immediate post-war years Sydney based nurses were dealing with hundreds of seriously ill, repatriated POW’s and the long-term war-wounded from both Pacific and European theatres, particularly in the larger hospitals like the Royal North Shore where Harkness was employed as a nurse-in-training. And of course the larger question arises in what would would the book’s recipient do with such information? A man (Alf  Boxall) who was in fact privy to more usable wartime information than she was having worked as an engineer on Sydney Harbour where he observed hundreds of wartime vessels entering and leaving the port.

None of it makes sense.

Seen below is evidence of the travails of such work as in one of Harkness’ letters home after the war she wrote ‘I would be wise I suppose to be a withered virgin in some hospital or another emptying pans and taking temperatures.’

We have yet to learn from Gordon Cramer if micro-writing is evident in this letter

However even if we were to by-pass these difficulties there is another matter that Cramer has yet to explain clearly.

If Harkness had indeed written so many messages, all intended to be read by the book’s recipient, what would they have been about?

There is no doubt many interesting patients came her way during her shifts, including men and women from Europe, America and the UK and the intimation might be that one or two of them may have inadvertently given away some confidentialities while under medication. Cramer also claims, without verification, that Harkness attended CPA meetings by dint of her supposed Communist leanings. That may be so, but why pass messages to or from them via Alf Boxall? He was on his way to the South West Pacific aboard a merchant steamer, far from any post-war intrigues in Australia. Not only that, if Boxall was involved in espionage as Cramer would have us believe, would it be likely he retained the Rubaiyat knowing the recriminations he would suffer if it was exposed as a means of passing secret messages? My amateur reading of such matters has such objects immediately and permanently dealt with in order for the holder to remain above suspicion and not to parade them in front of national television as Boxall did in his interview with Stuart Littlemore.

Finally, Cramer’s claim of a second telephone number written on the code page of the Freeman Rubaiyat requires us to believe it was hidden within what could only be called a smudge on the top-right corner (below), which is a highly implausible proposition, more so when you enlarge the image.

Gordon Cramer’s work can be found on tamamshud.blogspot.com