Item 1a - (i) Letter from Sir Richmond Ritchie to Edwin Montagu, 23 Jan. 1911, with (ii) Montagu’s reply, 23 Jan. 1911, and (iii) a note from Ritchie to Ernest Gowers, 26 Jan. 1911

MONT II/A/4/8/1a

(i) Letter from Sir Richmond Ritchie to Edwin Montagu, 23 Jan. 1911, with (ii) Montagu’s reply, 23 Jan. 1911, and (iii) a note from Ritchie to Ernest Gowers, 26 Jan. 1911

Item

(i) India Office.—Transmits a letter from Sir Louis Dane [A4/8/1b]. He proposes to say that Montagu will bear it in mind in his parliamentary dealings with Ramsay MacDonald. Asks if he should add anything else. Dane refers to the torture case, but he would rather not correspond with him on that point unless necessary.

(ii) Thinks that the letter should confidentially be made known to MacDonald. They certainly needed Dane’s defence, but he is glad that at least one Indian official is grateful for their [the India Office’s] self-sacrificing defence in difficult circumstances.

(iii) Has answered [Dane], expressing Montagu’s acknowledgements. Asks him to do what is necessary about communicating with MacDonald.

(Three messages on one sheet. Marked, probably by Gowers, ‘Wrote to Ramsay M. 10 Feby’.)