Sir,—How like you to read an inaccurate report of my speech! The words I used—you will find them reported in The Wastepaper Gazette for that week—were as follows: "We must then take these statements of Mr. Thomson-Thomson to be nothing but the blustering artifice of a rhetorical hireling." You will, I am sure, appreciate the difference between the two versions. If you do not, I may add that I am prepared to endorse the opinion expressed in the accurate version and to raise the question in the House of Commons at an early opportunity.
I am sending a copy, of this letter to the Press, as your reply will doubtless be irrelevant.
Yours faithfully,
A. B. C. Wentworth-Coke.
N. Y. Z. Thomson-Thomson, Esq.
Sir,—I have perused several reports of your speech, and with one exception they all agree that the word "the" was used and not the word "a." The Wastepaper Gazette, with which I think you are identified, is the only one which has printed your version of the speech, and I must therefore decline to accept your statement. Of course had the indefinite article been used it would have destroyed any ground for complaint. As you are attempting to evade the serious issue between us I can only conclude that your methods indicate the "blustering artifice of the rhetorical hireling." Unless I hear from you to the contrary I shall always maintain this view.
I have sent a copy of this letter to the Press.
Yours truly,
N. Y. Z. Thomson-Thomson.
A. B. C. Wentworth-Coke, Esq.
Sir,—My Secretary was much pained at your last letter. He has informed me of its contents. I can only say that I am surprised that a statesman of your undoubted ability should exhibit such peculiar controversial methods.
The circumstances are not new. In 1911, in the House of Commons, I find that I formulated the same opinion of you in substantially the same words, yet no objection was then raised by you nor could any objection have been so raised.