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Halifax July 11 1896

Gentlemen

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th inst. It was handed to me on the morning of the 9th instant and I would have replied to it on that day had not the concluding paragraph of your letter given both Mr. Binney and myself occupation from which we would have gladly escaped. In Mr Binney's behalf, I think it becoming and candid to state now had I been aware that the investigation relative to the charges made against Captain Darby was prosecuting in secret, and in his and my absence after an offer to attend, I would have submitted to His Excellency a formal Protest against it. Mr Pinney communicated [these? there?] reports to you in the first instance from a sense of public duty — Good faith to you and regard for the protection of the public rights compelled the disclosure — however averse to his own feelings — upon him, and he, as well as his friends, have been at a loss to account, for what reason he has been since threatened by your Solicitor with a private action. He disclaims any wish to establish these charges against Captain Darby unless they be founded in truth and he would have been glad to have referred his informants to you, and to have taken no part in the enquiry had he not been forced to follow it up by the threat of two actions — If the matter should be enquired into subsequently, I think his conduct will not suffer by comparison — To evince his anxiety for an impartial investigation he proposed when the affidavits were first sent to His Excellency to have the witnesses only examined in your presence, or before any tribunal that His Excellency
might

[address at lower left]
The Commissioners of Sable Island