A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE statement Lady Haig has made to the Daily Record regarding Earl Haig's war diaries demonstrates the difficulty under which the late Field-Marshal's bio- grapher, Mr. Duff Cooper, labours. Mr. Duff Cooper has access to the diaries and other papers in Lady Haig's possession, but it is " expressly against her wishes " that he should quote extensively from them,—the reason pre- sumably being that Lady Haig contemplates the publica- tion of the diaries as diaries. That would matter much less if Lord Haig had not been made the subject of vehement attack, primarily, of course, by Mr. Lloyd George. Whatever the ultimate verdict of history on the controversy may be it is of the utmost importance that both sides should be adequately put before the verdict is given. There can be no doubt about the adequacy of the statement of Mr. Lloyd George's case, and it will be not a private but a public disaster if Mr. Duff Cooper, whose book will inevitably be looked to as a semi-official statement of Lord Haig's case, is prevented from doing that case full justice by limitations on his freedom of quotation from the diaries. It is not, of course, a question of proving anyone right or wrong, but of getting all sides of the case fully and fairly stated. It is to be hoped that Lady Haig will do all she reason- ably can to make that possible.
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