The result of the interview is given in a letter three days later:—
Lord Granville was very civil and kind.
Ferry shirked getting justice done by publishing a disclaimer. His Lordship agreed that a question should be put in the House of Lords. He only asked that Zouche should give him notice, and promised to reply in a manner that would be satisfactory to me. I gave him a full dose; outpouring all that was in my heart, both about abuse and my having been passed over in the course of my career by juniors—being told my ‘services were too useful in Morocco to be dispensed with’—and now, I said, ‘the public press declares that I am useless and stop the way,’ &c.
Lord Granville looked blandly at me, now and then making encouraging remarks, such as, ‘Your character stands too high to be affected by the attacks of men like Monsieur Ordega, and that bankrupt fellow,’ meaning ———.
Before the subject was mentioned in the House of Lords, Her Majesty’s Government had given proof that they did not underrate Sir John’s integrity and good service, thereby affording him sincere satisfaction.
‘I think you will be glad to hear,’ he writes from Ravensrock in November, 1884, ‘that I have just received a note from Lord Granville announcing that Her Majesty has been pleased to confer upon me the G.C.M.G., “in recognition of my long and good service.” I confess I care little to add some letters of the alphabet after my name, but I am pleased at the discomfiture of enemies who have been plotting against me. My French colleague will have an attack of the English malady, “spleen.” He is now treating with these unfortunate Moors at the cannon’s mouth.
‘An ironclad is in the bay to support his demands. He seeks for revenge, on account of the humiliation suffered by his protégé and dupe the Sheríf, who is now treated almost as an outcast by the Moors of Tangier, and is called the Sheríf “francés.”’
The question to which Sir John referred in his interview with Lord Granville was asked by a personal friend in the House of Lords. It elicited replies which completely exonerated him from all the blame which had been cast upon him, and was made the occasion for the strongest expressions of satisfaction with his long and arduous services. The following passages are taken from the Times of November 22, 1884:—
Lord Zouche asked Her Majesty’s Government whether any official denial had been published by the French Government to an article which appeared in the Gaulois newspaper in the spring of this year wherein the editor accused several of the Foreign Representatives at Tangier of corrupt practices, and among them the British Minister, Sir John Drummond Hay, stating that he (the editor) had obtained this information from the French Minister at Tangier, M. Ordega, who was at that time in Paris on leave of absence; and, as it would appear that, owing to the fact of no denial having been given to those grave charges, other accusations were made by French journals which were referred to in English journals to the effect that Sir J. D. Hay had obstructed British enterprise and commerce, and had encouraged the Sultan of Morocco in his policy of resistance to all reform and improvement, whether there were any grounds for such grave charges having been put forward. Sir John Hay had been passed over by many of his juniors, and had now been upwards of forty years in his present post, and he and his friends thought it incumbent upon them to have some sort of public contradiction of these most unfounded charges and some sort of public vindication of his character.
Earl Granville.—My Lords, I think the noble lord has correctly stated the facts of the case. The editor of the Gaulois, it appears, accused Sir John Hay and his colleagues of most intolerable practices, and gave M. Ordega as his authority. Now, I am not sure that if I read such an article as this concerning myself I should not treat it with contempt and trust to whatever character I had. But it is a different thing when men serving their country in distant countries are thus unjustly attacked, for, as in this case, the extract from the French paper is copied not only into other foreign newspapers, but into English newspapers. However, after what has occurred I thought it necessary, at the request of Sir J. D. Hay, to make an application to M. Ferry, in courteous terms, that M. Ordega should be called upon either to substantiate, or retract, or to say that he had not communicated the article to the Gaulois. M. Ferry, in the first instance, said the Gaulois was perfectly wrong, that no such report had been circulated by Ordega himself, and that he thought that it was hardly worth while to contradict a statement made in a newspaper which was well known to be so strongly opposed to the existing French Government. M. Ordega was, however, applied to, and he telegraphed to Paris entirely denying that he had communicated or inspired any such article in the Gaulois. M. Ferry took the view that a great deal of time had elapsed, and that it was really better not to call attention to the matter now. I have been in correspondence with Sir J. D. Hay, and the last letter I received from him, only a day or two ago, was to the effect that he was perfectly satisfied and that he should trouble his head no more in the matter. I am glad to be able to add that I believe there is no man in the diplomatic service more honourable or more energetic in the discharge of his duties than Sir J. D. Hay. The noble lord says that Sir J. D. Hay has been passed over for promotion; but I remember instances where persons employed in the diplomatic service have been, to use a homely phrase, kicked upstairs to get them out of a place where they were doing mischief instead of good. I believe it to be exactly the contrary in the case of Sir John Drummond Hay. He is most fit for the post he has held, and for that reason he has lost some chances of personal advancement. I really can only repeat in the strongest way that Sir Drummond Hay was quite justified in dismissing from his mind any imputation made against him, and I have great pleasure in adding that a short time ago the Queen granted him the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George.