THE CROFTERS AND LADY GORDON CATHCART.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In a recent number, you dealt with the decisions of the Crofters' Commission ; and in your article on the subject, you made some observations on Lady Gordon Cathcart's attitude towards her crofter-tenantry which appeared to reflect unfairly on that lady. It was my intention to write you on the subject at the time, but circumstances occurred to prevent my doing so. Your article has since been quoted in a Scottish provincial newspaper, to the editor of which I addressed the enclosed letter. I now invite your attention to the mistakes into which the author of the article fell, and I hope you will see the justice of publicly withdrawing the distorted statements to which the authority of the Spectator has through mistake been given. Having repre- sented Lady Cathcart before the Commission, I am in a position to know the facts.—I am, Sir, 8r,c., 21 Hill Street, Edinburgh, January 10th. WK. GARSON.
[Mr. Gerson has taken a long time to make his explanation ; it seems strange that it should come in the shape of a newspaper letter via' Orkney ; and he uses words much too big for what he must mean. Lady Gordon Cathcart is of Scottish descent, and, through her mother, may claim a remote association with the island whereof she has become the owner. Her generosity to the islanders has far surpassed that shown by her first husband,—almost as much as that sur- passed the treatment meted out by his father. To her the Spectator gave unstinted credit ; and the adverse interpretation could never have occurred save to a suspicious and sophisticated mind. For the rest, the facts are that in South Dist, for the first time in the experience of the Crofters' Commission, the landowner appeared to sue as the sole suitor; that the investi- gation took more time than was bestowed on any like number of cases ; that the whole rental brought into question was over £1,000, which was reduced to little more than £700; and that of the arrears charged, amounting to £4,000, the Court struck off £2,700. Let who will make of this what he can.—En. Spectator.]
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