QUESTIONS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS on Case- ment failed
to elicit the answer to the question I posed a few weeks ago: is it, or is it not, an offence against the Official Secrets Act to have a copy of The Black Diaries? But as Mr. Butler said 'the great question is where do the diaries belong . . . it is precisely the testamentary aspect which I am at present considering,' he is probably not con- sidering prosecuting himself for having a copy in his possession. And the quest for Casement ad- vanced a further step when the Home Secretary casually, without notice, answered a question which he and his predecessors have always de- clined to answer when it has been put formally, with notice, in the past. Are the original diaries in existence? Mr. Montgomery Hyde asked him. Mr. Butler replied. 'They are.'
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