London by Mr. Bailey in the discharge of his official duties for the
purpose of consultations with the Government in connection with the
Evicted Tenants Bill. On reading in the papers Mr. Moore's question
implying negligence to his duties on his part, Mr. Bailey wrote to Mr.
Moore the following letter, marked private:--

"UNIVERSITY CLUB,

"DUBLIN, March, 1907.

"DEAR MOORE,--I see that as a supplemental question you asked
the other day whether the delay in land purchase was due to the
continued absence of Mr. Bailey. I do not know, of course, what
was your object, but it may interest you to know that for the
last year I attended more days in the office than either of my
colleagues, and that, as a matter of fact, I did not take much
more than half the vacation to which I was entitled. You will
thus see that you have been strangely misinformed, and I can
only surmise that another of my colleagues was meant.

"Faithfully yours,

"W.F. BAILEY."

To this Mr. Moore replied:--

"ULSTER CLUB,

"BELFAST, March 19th.

"DEAR BAILEY,--You were appointed by a Unionist Government to
see fair play between Wrench and Finucane, and you have sold
the pass on every occasion. The first thing my colleagues and I
will do when we come back, which will not be very far off, will
be to press for an inquiry into the working of your department.
You can destroy your evidence now, and show this to whom you
please.

"Yours truly,

"W. MOORE."

In reply the Estates Commissioner wrote:--

"Mr. Bailey desires to acknowledge receipt of Mr. Moore's
letter of the 19th inst., and inasmuch as it contains grave
statements of a threatening and unfounded character he will
take an early opportunity of bringing the matter under notice
in the proper quarter."

The final letter was Mr. Moore's reply:--

"ULSTER CLUB,

"BELFAST, March 25th.

"Mr. Moore hopes that when Mr. Bailey publishes the
correspondence he will make it clear that Mr. Moore's reply was
directed to a disloyal attack by Mr. Bailey on one of his
colleagues in his letter to Mr. Moore. This is all that was
omitted from Mr. Moore's reply."

The next step in this discreditable incident occurred on July 23rd, on
which day Mr. Moore denounced Mr. Bailey in the House of Commons for his
partisanship towards the Nationalists, and gave a g