An Open Letter to Lord Beaverbook

well-known to your editor—this infamous lie was quite strictly murderous : for a man may be done to death by venomous libels far less mercifully than by cruder poisons. 11. My Lord, you cannot escape the gravest personal responsibility in this matter. Your editor could not, with any private resour- ces of his own, undertake a protracted news- paper campaign of libel. It is your wealth, in particular, that he relies on when he challenges Mr. Crowley to fill his pockets by means of an action at law. It is your capital, in various kinds, that he uses in order to collect anonymous gossip, purchase slanderous interviews, and give to his calumnies a world-wide publicity. You cannot avoid moral responsibility for his dis- honourable abuse of the power which you have put into his hands. If you could not prevent his infamous libels, you are bound to redress the wrong as soon as it is pointed out to you. In putting into the hands of unscrupulous scoundrels the power to bring innocent persons, virtually defenceless, to starvation, you—a Peer of the Realm, one of the chosen guardians of its public honour, a representative of the illus- trious traditions of English chivalry—are helping to degrade the standards of public morality and honour. — 13 —