4 JUNE 1910, Page 16

LTo TEE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIB,—Having been a constant

reader of the Spectator for a number of years, I have noticed that you are always willing to acknowledge it when it is pointed out to you that you have inadvertently been guilty of an injustice. Now I think in putting over letters from correspondents on the subject of the Star and betting tips the words "The Quaker Press" that you are not fair to a religious body which in the main aims at living up to its standards as far as it is able. The Society of Friends has no control over the policy of the Daily News, the Star, or any of the other papers in question. You, Sir, are, I believe, a Churchman, but surely it would not be correct to describe the Spectator and papers similarly edited as " The Church Press." There may be a few members of the Society of Friends who take what you describe as the " man-of-the-world " view of betting, though most condemn it entirely in principle and action ; but I think there are very few indeed who, whilst professing to condemn it, would at the same time so act as to help it on. When this has been done, it is not fair to hold the Society of Friends responsible.—I am, [We apologise most sincerely to the Society of Friends, a body for which we entertain the highest regard. We did not like to use the phrase "The Cocoa Press," and so perhaps prejudice a harmless and useful beverage, but we ought certainly to have avoided anything which seemed like a reflection on Quakers. Their founder, Fox, was assuredly the least canting of men. Who can imagine him a shareholder in the Star 7—En. Spectator.]