24 MAY 1957, Page 14

THE CASEMENT DIARIES SIR,—In referring to yet another typescript copy

of the alleged Casement diary, Pharos has stated (May 3) that in his opinion it was written by an insane man and that it is 'barely credible that Case- ment could have been that man.'

On the evidence it is completely incredible. Not only is there the testimony of the American doctor who spent many weeks in Casement's company in the Putumayo in 1911 (when, according to Sir Ernley Blackwell and the typescript, he was in a degenerate psychopathic condition) that Casement was no homo- sexual, but there is also the evidence of the prison doctor at Casement's inquest : `Mr. Gavan Duffy : 1 understand that the doctor has had the prisoner under observation for a month and I want him to say whether, as a result of the observation, he can say whether there is any truth in the suggestion of insanity which has been made in the press.

`Dr. P. R. Mander: I saw no evidence of insanity.' (The Times, August 4, 1916.)—Yours faithfully,