[To THE EDITOR OP SRI "SPICTATOR."1
Sin,—Mr. Parke in his letter to you of last week makes a personal reference to the World and to myself. I must there- fore ask for the hospitality of your columns in order to comment on his letter.
It is obvious that to attempt a summary of the grave charges brought against Messrs. Cadbury by the World in a series of twenty-six articles would be to trespass on your good nature, and I shall therefore confine myself to dealing with two or three of the main points in Mr. Parke's letter.
It is unnecessary for me to reply to the personal attack made upon myself by Mr. Parke, except to say that it ill becomes Mr. Parke, one of the prime organisers of the shameful Chinese labour campaign, to refer to " the fertile and irresponsible mind" of myself or of any one else. Mr. Parke states that the columns of the World have been week by week filled with travesties of fact in the cam- paign against Messrs. Cadbury. The World in its issue of this week has already requested Mr. Parke to point to, one single travesty of fact in its charges against Messrs. Cad- bury. I can only repeat that challenge, and again state that every allegation was amply supported by authority. I am fully aware of the seriousness of the charges which the World has made against Messrs. Cadbury. It was only after long and anxious consideration that I decided, as a result of the Standard trial, to present to the public the full and damning case, and, although I have not the advantage of your agree- ment and support, I cannot but think that the failure of Messrs. Cadbury to make any reply is a proof of the troth of what was said in the World, and that in deciding to make this exposure I have performed a public service.
At last, however, Messrs. Cadbury bare employed the best pen at their disposal to do his best to obscure the issue. Even in this belated apology Mr. Parke, although he makes a direct reference to the World and myself, makes no attempt to refer to the specific and categorical questions that were put in the World to Messrs. Cadbury concerning their conduct in pur- Abasing cocoa long after they knew it to be produced by the aid of slave labour. Messrs. Cadbury were asked by the World as long ago as last December :—(1) Whether they had attempted to buy out any of the planters in San Thome and Principe. (2) Whether they purchased or manumittedd or otherwise liberated any of the slaves on those islands.
(3) Whether they offered any pecuniary inducement to the planters to improve the conditions of the slaves or to manumit them. (4) Whether they took any steps to alleviate the sufferings of the slaves on their long journey from their homes to the plantations. (5) Whether they or their agents provided the slaves with any medical attendance, education, or religious instruction on the islands. Until Messrs. Cadbury, or Mr. Parke, or the editor of the Daily News, or some other person connected with the Cadbury interest replies to those questions, the term to which Mr. Parke takes so much objection, "canting hypocrites," must, in my opinion, continue to apply to the Cocoa Trust.
Mr. Parke naturally does his best to obscure the issue, and makes the following amazing statement:—
" Now Lord Winterton has discovered the way to a lateral attack. Do not bother about the policy of the Daily News, the Morning Leader, and the Star. Destroy their influence by blackening the character of their proprietors."
Apart from the admission contained in Mr. Parke's letter that my paper has succeeded in destroying the influence of the " Cocoa Press," a compliment which is the greatest that has ever been paid to the World, far no journal could do greater service than this, there is in Mr. Parke's allegations not one vestige of justification.
I have attacked the policy of all three papers. I have charged the Daily News and Messrs. Oadbury with gross hypocrisy because at a time when Messrs. Cadbury were pur- chasing slave-grown cocoa in San Thome and Principe with a full knowledge of the facts they were bitterly attacking the Unionist Government of 1900 and Lord Milner for having introduced a system of indentured labour into South Africa.
I have charged them with having made a fierce onslaught on the late King of the Belgians and the Congo authorities for permitting forced labour in the Congo, while at the same time they were silent, or practically silent, over the equally abominable conditions in San Thome and Principe. I have charged, and do charge, Messrs. Cadbury with asking man- kind to witness their greatness and goodness in conducting the Daily News on anti-gambling principles, while at the same time they control in the Star the greatest journalistic betting asset in London.
" The real crime," to quote Mr. Parke's phrase, of the World in Mr. Parke's eyes is that it was the first journal to expose the fact that the circulation of the Star is built up on the accuracy of its betting intelligence. Mr. Parke is a brilliant journalist ; shall I be going too far in saying that not even the weight of Mr. Parke's pen could prevent the Star from losing two-thirds of its circulation if its racing and betting news were withdrawn to-morrow? It could exist without Mr. Parke ; it would droop indeed without " Captain [We feel obliged to allow Lord Winterton to reply to Mr. Parke, for Mr. Parke attacked him by namo in our columns. We cannot, however, open our columns to any further discussion of the points in regard to cocoa raised by Mr. Parke last week and now dealt with by Lord Winterton. Further controversy between them should be carried on in their respective newspapers. Should we receive next week any letters from those opposed to us which we should not think it fair to reject, we shall of course publish them. Otherwise we hope to bring this correspondence to an end with to-day's instalments.—ED. Spectator.]
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