J. M. Gibson

“ So popular amongst our people is the game of cricket that multitudes of all ages and classes flock to a great match. They watch these contests with an interest as intense as any felt in England over a great political question. Lord Harris is, we believe, the first English cricketer who failed to observe that they applaud good cricket on either side, and, so far from our crowds being the bad losers he represents, the English Elevens who have visited New South Wales were never made more of than when they defeated the local team. ”

“ Lord Harris, by what we feel to be a most ungenerous suppression of these facts and others, has led the British public to suppose that in New South Wales, to quote his own words, 'a party of gentlemen travelling through these colonies for the purpose of playing a few friendly games of cricket should have been insulted and subjected to indignities', whilst the press and inhabitants of Sydney neither showed surprise, indignation, nor regret. We cannot allow a libel upon the people of New South Wales so utterly unfounded as this to pass without challenge. ”

“ The remarkable kindness with which the Australian Eleven were treated during their very successful tour in England keenly intensified the general regret at the painful event to which I have been compelled to refer at so great a length, and the association would take this opportunity of assuring the English public that their generous treatment of the Colonial Eleven made a deep impression in Australia, which, as it is well known, yields to no part of the empire in loyalty to the Queen and affection for the British people. ”