JOURNALISTIC FAIRNESS. (To THE EDITOR OF THE " SFEOTATOR.")
Sm.,—In a long letter from Mr. Bosworth Smith, published in the Pall Mall Gazette of June 27th, occurs the following passage
Give Turkey in Asia,' says one of the most voluminous of book- makers and letter-writers, in a letter published last week, 'a Christian rule, and all will go right.' Can anything more clearly show the funda- mental misconception under which such men have all along been working? The pathetic appeal of the Lazes to England against the threatened annexation, which England has already declared in the Agreement she will do nothing to oppose, is a curious commentary on Mr. Malcolm MacColl's hopeful antipipations. His panacea does not seem to be recognised by them at all events as a panacea."
I can understand the chagrin of men like Mr. Bosworth Smith, -as they watch the natural issue of their infatuated policy in the partition of Turkey by the Congress of Berlin. I can
also understand their irritation against all who foretold that issue eighteen months ago. But I think it would be more dignified to abstain from giving vent to their disappointment in uncourteous 'personalities. That, however, is a matter for Mr. Bosworth Smith's consideration rather than mine. But in the event of his doing me the honour of attacking me on a future occasion, may
I venture to request that he will base his attack on something which I have really written. I must respectfully decline to accept the paternity of any absurdity which Mr. Bosworth Smith may be good enough to invent for me. The words which he has
attributed to me in the passage which I have quoted are not mine, in any sense ; I never wrote them, nor any words which even a perverse ingenuity could torture into such a meaning. And I humbly submit that even "the pathetic appeal of the Lazes" hardly justifies Mr. Bosworth Smith in making a spurious quotation of his own the text of a patronising rebuke to me.
I wrote to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette at once, to ask Mr. Bosworth Smith for his reference ; but the editor has refused to publish my letter. Now, I have a sincere admiration for the literary vigour of the Pall Mall Gazette ; and I admire also—if he will forgive me for saying it—its editor's consistently fanatical loyalty to what I consider a bad cause. But I am sorry that his admiration for the Turks should have tempted him to introduce into the arena of English controversy the methods of Turkish justice. This is not the first time that I have been attacked in his columns, and refused a right of reply. I trust, Sir, that you will prove, by the publication of this letter, that the policy of your contemporary is as futile as it is manifestly unfair.—I am, Sir, &c., 12 Chester Terrace, S. W., July 3rd. MALCOLM MACCOLL.
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