A Question of Fact.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17021, 18 December 1920, Page 8

A Question of Fact.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has done us the honour of writing us a letter, which we print in another column, referring to his remark upon our reference, * in our leading article of Thursday, to Mr Hyslop, formerly Professor of Logic and Ethics at Columbia University, a post which he gave up to become secretary of tho American Society for Psychical Research. Wo are sorry that Sir Arthur did not do himself the justice of including in his letter tho apology which wo think was duo from him. In cu'r article Mr Hyslop was quo&sd simply as a modern authority of the very highest eminenco amongst students of psychical research, and Wo took from his book, "Contact with tho Other "World," a passage which we think Sir Arthur found very difficult to deal with. He therefore choso an old trick of tho platform speaker. He ignored tho crucial difficnlty and Tode off with j a jeer at "The Press'' for not knowing that Mr Hyslop had been, as ho alleged, "dead for some years." He obtained tho "laughter and applause" that he aimed at, and loft the audience, as ho intended, with the impression that there was nothing further to be said concerning our quotations, which the audience, as ho intended, would imagine he had disposed of. Whether Mr Hyslop had been dead for 10- or 120 years, as Sir Arthur's words suggested, ■ did not,, as n matter of fact, affect the point of our quotation at all. But Sir Arthur's statement was grossly opposed to fact. As we pointed out yesterday, Mr Hyslop, who issued a volume last year, was living when tho IP2O almanacs were issued Now Sir Arthur tells us that ho is ' amazed" that we imagine that he "could possibly make a mistake " upon so important a point."' Aftfer this, he admits that he did make a mistake. He "intended"' to say something else, and if ho said "some years" —as he did —it was "a slip of the "tongue.'' He does not even now know when Mr Hyslop died, but he thinks it may have been early in tho present year or late ifi the past one. As a matter of fact, we had evidence that Mr Hyslop was alive until very recontly, and so far as wo were aware ho was alivo when wo wrote. We have since ascertained that he did not die until June last, and it will therefore bo clcar to everyone that accuracy and caudour were alike defied by Sir Arthur , when he told his audience, in effect,

that "The Press'' was ignorantly quoting a man of whose death many years ago it was unaware. It is difficult for Sir Arthur, as lie says, to givo exact dates when away from all his means of reference, but his reference books are surely not indispensable to the preparation of an apology when it is clear]y due. "