24 SEPTEMBER 1937, Page 6

Some of us, can remember the bitterness caused during the

19oo election, held in the middle of the Boer War, by Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's telegram to a Conservative can- didate, running " a vote given to the Liberals is a vote sold to the Boers." Mr. Chamberlain stoutly maintained that he never wrote that, and his original text, when turned up by the Post Office, was found to read " a vote given to the Liberals is a vote gained to the Boars." So Mr. Gates, a Manchester postal official, interviewed by the Manchester Guardian ; but my own recollection is that the message as published ran : " A vote given to the Liberals is a vote given [not sold] to the Boers." * * * *