James Keir HARDIE (1856-1915)

Autograph Letter Signed (“J. Keir Hardie”) to Mr. W.A.H. Saul in Rockferry, correcting a misapprehension about Labour’s failure to field a candidate in Birkenhead.

1 page 4to, 53 Fleet Street, 22[?] January 1895.                                  

“Replying to your letter of the 15^th Jany it is not the case that the reason we did not run a candidate for Birkenhead at the recent ByeElection was because we approved of the official Liberal candidate or because he was acceptable to the I.L.P.

As stated in the press at the time the reasons were purely financial.”

From 1865 until the end of the First World War, Birkenhead returned a series of Conservative MPs, with only one exception in 1906, so it would seem likely that the Independent Labour Party might well have decided that its limited funds were better spent elsewhere.

There is some offsetting of the ink at the top, most likely from the letter being folded too soon after it was written. The verso of the letter has remains of mounting, and a portion of the lower right hand corner has been cut away, not touching the text.

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