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[[MS 2750/487/2/]]

Edward J. Thompson Esq

The Cottage

Boar's Hill

Oxford

27 June, 1925

Dear Mr Thompson,

I have read your MS with very great interest. I should certainly be willing to publish it. My own feeling is that it would be a great mistake to add conciliatory matter. Your case is a good one, but it cannot be made conciliatory to a large number of people, and if you try to make it so, you will simply blur the book. I hope you do not mind my saying that I think the preliminary part might be shortened with advantage, i.e. the book ought to get on almost immediately to the evidence.

The middle portion with the evidence seems to me extraordinarily interesting and telling. My only fear is that it will not be read by people who ought to read it here, but will be used extensively by the Indian extremists. Still that is a risk that one has to face in all these cases.

If you allow us to publish the book, I would suggest that we do so at our risk and pay on a royalty basis, though I think that te [sic] should have to stipulate that the royalty should not be payable if we sell less than 500 copies. If you preferred it howeve[r] we would publish at our risk and pay you one third share of any profits made on the first edition and a half share on any profits made on any subsequent edition.

Yours sincerely | Leonard Woolf [signature]