MR. HANDEL BOOTH AND SIR JOHN RAMSDEN.. [TO THE EDITOR
OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I thank you for the frank way in which you have with- drawn the assertion that I attacked Sir John Ramsden ; but your note and other circumstances impel me to be so explicit that no one can with the faintest reason libel me in this relation in the future. I had no responsibility for the original article and was ignorant of it until it reached me through a press- cutting agency. It is true that in a subsequent interview with the writer of the article, sought by him in consequence of a published denial by Sir W. Barrett, I assured him thais his description of the village (which Sir W. Barrett had apparently mistaken for another village some distance away), was an understatement of its condition ; but on the other hand I pray you to note particularly that I have never expressed an opinion, even indirectly, upon the other phases of the article which were the subject of legal pro- ceedings. Indeed, of Sir John Ramsden—whom I have never met—I have never spoken disparagingly either in public m- in private, and only think of him as a friendly and esteemed neighbour. Concerning the condition of the village of Brotherton, I had the right to speak as its representative on the Pontefract Rural Council. Though it is a rural parish, with rates of over 10s. in the £, our sewers are unflushed with water, and though a great river flows through, it brings only the sewage and dye refuse of prosperous West Riding towns. The copyhold system is a curse. There is much bad property, and new houses are urgently required. The only official who has shown sympathy in our trouble is the President of the Local Government Board, and the working men are hoping that Mr. John Burns will come as al comrade to their rescue.—I am, Sir, &c.,
F
P.S.—My letters to Mr. Bonar Law, which escaped your: notice, were published in the _Manchester Guardian, the Yorkshire Post, and Observer. Copies were sent to the Westminster and Pall Mall Gazettes, bflt were not there published.
[We await the comments which we presume will be made upon this letter by the Daily News and its special cor- respondent. The special correspondent's letter was as follows :--- "A DERELICT VILLAGE." [To THE EDITOR.] Sza,—Sir W. F. Barrett—though he "cannot speak from personal observation," as I can—finds my account of the paralysis of the, village of Brotherton incredible, because he knows how beloved; Sir John Ramsden is elsewhere. I have the authority of Mr..
Handel Booth, M.P., a prominent resident of Drotherton, for say- ing that no inaccuracies are to be found in what I wrote. I did not see Mr. Booth during my inquiries in the district.
YOUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
Daily News, 23rd Oct., 1912.
—ED. Spectator.]
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