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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
From the Rev. C. W. Park to Mr. Turner.
Publication Department.
Mahableshwar, May 25th, 1879.
To A. F. TURNER, Esq.,
Solicitor, High Court, Bombay.
Sir,
Your letter of May 21st, complaining of a Marathi article in the Dnyanodaya of the 15th instant which your client, Col. Olcott, considers defamatory, was received by me yesterday, at this place. During my absence on furlough the work on the Marathi portion of the Dnyanodaya is done by the Assistant Editor. He does not see the Times of India regularly, and took the paragraph from the Colonial Empire and Star of India, from a weekly paper in which it had appeared; and his own comments on that paragraph were written by him and published in our issue of the 15th in entire ignorance of the fact that Col. Olcott had denied the truth of the paragraph in a letter written by him to the Times of India of the 13th. As soon as he learned that such a denial had been published, he prepared another article, which was published in our issue of the 22nd; in which he said that Col. Olcott had denied the statements contained in the paragraph he (the Assistant Editor) had previously quoted and commented upon, and that, therefore, his own comments were without foundation. This article was published before your letter under reply was received.
It only remains for me to add that I deeply regret that the article of the 15th should have appeared, and very willingly tender to Col. Olcott, through yourself, my apology for the occurrence.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Turner to the Rev. C. W. Park.
Bombay, 3rd June 1879.
The Rev. C. W. PARK,
Editor, of the Dnyanodaya, Mahableshwar.
Sir,
I am in receipt of your letter of the 26th ultimo, and have seen my client Col. Olcott upon it.
Regarding the article referred to by you, which was published in your issue of the 22nd ultimo, my client and I have carefully perused a translation of it, and we cannot agree with you that the paragraph and comments complained of in my previous Notice are in any way retracted; on the contrary, Col. Olcott considers that the insult is increased, and that the final sentence in the second article is a sneer and a taunt. There is a vast difference between your letter and the article in question; and my client regrets to find that your Assistant Editor is not actuated by the spirit of justice which apparently actuates yourself. You are aware from Col. Olcott’s letter to the Times of India, that he is in possession of a letter of credence from the President of the United States, and this very fact thoroughly vindicates his character as an honest man, however heterodox his religious opinions may seem to Christians. The insulting tone of the second article is the more inexcusable, therefore, since you admit that your assistant had read my client’s letter in the Times of India before the number of your paper of the 22nd ultimo went to press.
As you are the Editor and therefore responsible for everything that appears in the paper, I must in justice to my client insist that in the next issue you print in full the text of his denial in the Times of India, with a fair and manly expression of regret that he should have been defamed by your paper. Unless this be done, I am instructed to adopt immediate proceedings against you.
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