NOT UNNATURALLY, ' the fate- of the Casement `diaries' cropped up
in the course of the debate; and as, usual the Government spokesman took refuge in equivOcation. If Mr. Emrys Hughes wants to know where 'the 'diaries'• are kept, the Solicitor-General said, 'he 'has to ask the specific department in. whose' care he thinks they • are.' Does this mean -that when an-MP wants to.track down some records he must play a game of Happy Families, asking each Department separ- ately until he comes across the right one? If so, it is a singularly childish system. But I suspect that the Solicitor-General's hedging was 'due• less to deliberate contrivance than to the fact he had little idea what the Casement controversy is all about (hardly surprising, as 'he went into the debate; apparently, under the impression that the Republic of Ireland is still in-the Cornmonwealth)4 In the circumstances-the controversy was carried no further—unless a suggestion thrown out by Mr. Montgomery Hyde is taken up: that Case- ment's family should claim the 'diaries' and, if they are refused, test the Government'S right to hold on to them in the courts. This should not be necessary, but in view of the Government's refusal to allow them to be investigated by experts, the idea might be worth following up:
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