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Rideau Cottage.
Ottawa.

Private

May 27th 1935.

My dear John Buchan

Here is the "Apocrypha" I spoke of. I have some hesitation in
sending it, because it is very frank - it would be useless were it not -
and I would much rather have said most of it than written it. But it
looks as if we should have little time for conversation before you sail.
I know you will treat it as confidential; indeed, I hope you will show
it to nobody at all, except your wife, and, if you wish, Pat Hodgson,
whose comments on it might be very helpful to you.

I could not let my clerk handle it, so you must forgive its slovenliness;
also, its incoherence, due to the fact that I have had to dash it off at
odd moments, during a period of weeks.

I have put down just what came into my head, imagining myself talking to
sombody who has never been in Canada at all; that, I realise, is not
your position at all, and much of this stuff will probably be stale news
to you. Indeed, I do not pretend that there is anything in it of much
value to an Empire-traveller and biographer of Minto.

I have not said much about the Governor-General's lady, but nearly all I
say about the G.G. applies, mutatis mutandis, to Her Excellency also.
If to her it all sounds rather depressing, tell her that I set out to
tell the worst; and that if my picture tends to be gloomy, the practical
truth is that both my wife and I have had a very happy time here, and are
resolved to come back to Canada whenever we get a chance to pay a visit.