In this letter to the editor, Kuyper seeks to correct the record about a report published in Land en Volk (a liberal democratic daily). According to the report, Kuyper had agreed to support the reappointment of J.D.C. van Heeckeren van Kell (1854–1931) to the First Chamber under certain conditions. Van Heeckeren had been accused of leaking state secrets. In the letter Kuyper refers to an asterism entitled “Advies” [Counsel] from De Standaard, no. 11748, July 6, 1910. In that asterism, he had described his letter to “a friend” working for Van Heeckeren’s reappointment. Kuyper had advised this friend (W. Hovy) on the subject of how to increase Van Heeckeren’s chances. Hovy sent this letter without Kuyper’s permission to Van Heeckeren for his perusal. Since Kuyper was residing abroad during this affair, he was probably unaware of reports circulating in the Dutch press attesting to a photographic copy of the letter in question. The editor published this letter to the editor under the heading “De gefotografeerde brief.”

Van Heeckeren van Kell had made reference in the First Chamber to a state secret dating from 1904 (see A.S. de Leeuw, Nederland in de wereldpolitiek van 1900 tot heden, Zeist: De Torentrans, 1936, pp. [91]–114). While the socialist press was writing against Kuyper’s involvement in the decorations affair, the liberal press was seeking to implicate him in van Heeckeren’s leak of state secrets.