At last, in a speech at Cardiff on Monday, Mr.
MacDonald made a long statement on the Zinovieff letter, but left everybody more mystified than before. His explanation was indeed so strange, and incidentally so unfair to the Foreign Office, that we cannot recall any declaration by a Foreign Secretary which can be compared with it. His conduct of the whole affair has been a humiliation to the nation. He said that he received the Zinovieff letter from the Foreign Office on October 16th, and on the same day replied that the greatest care must be taken to ascertain its authenticity. He instructed the Foreign Office to draft a Note for sending to M. Rakovsky. The Foreign Office accordingly wrote the Note and Mr. MacDonald received the draft of it on October 23rd. In his speech he took great credit to himself for the rapidity and the businesslike manner in which the Labour Govern- ment had dealt with the whole matter.
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