§ Colonel WEDGWOODI wish to make a personal explanation concerning the case settled yesterday in the Courts.
In 1923 a Mrs. Madden wrote to me about a grievance. This I sent on to the Noble Lord the Under-Secretary for 372 India, who wrote me an obviously private reply. I wrote the lady a non-committal answer. She wrote asking me to return some papers she had sent to me. I replied that when I returned to town I would look for them. 'Ultimately, I found a batch of her papers, and sent them off. I did not look through them again, and folded up amongst them must have been the Noble Lord's private letter to me. Only more than a year later did I learn from the Noble Lord that his letter had got into other hands. I can now only apologise publicly to the Noble Lord for the great trouble my carelessness has caused him.
§ Earl WINTERTONI would ask the indulgence of the House to express in a sentence my gratitude to the right hon. Gentleman for the very generous apology he has just made. I assure him that at no time did I ever suppose for a moment that this incident occurred otherwise than through pure inadvertence on his part, and I should like also to add that it has not in any way shaken the friendship which, despite political differences, has existed between him and myself for many years.