Chance, however,
enabled me to prove what I felt was probably the truth. It happened that
Mr. Boyd, one of Mr. Rhodes's private secretaries, sent a letter to
_The Spectator_ about Rhodesia, in which he made a clear allusion
to the subscription to the Liberal funds. I at once noted this admission
and insisted that the matter should now be cleared up. The Liberal
leaders ought, I declared, to say frankly whether any subscription had
ever been accepted from Mr. Rhodes.
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, as leader of the Liberal Party, wrote an
indignant letter to _The Spectator_, declaring that the statement
was a lie. He added that he was authorised by Sir William Harcourt to
say that he joined in the denial and so in the accusation of falsehood
against Mr. Rhodes's secretary. I then called on Mr. Rhodes in justice
to himself to make good, if he could, the allegations of his private
secretary.
Then the whole strange story came out. Mr. Rhodes wrote to say that the
correspondence with Mr. Schnadhorst was at the Cape, but that he had
cabled for it, and that when it came he would send it to _The
Spectator_ and let the British people judge whether the story was or
was not a lie.
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