The case of Mr. McGovern, M.P., whom the Home Secretary
would not allow to go to Ireland to enquire into the circum- stances leading to the detention of Mr. Cahir Healy, a member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, was discussed in The Spectator a fortnight ago. As a result, I have been sent a cutting from the Irish Independent describing a very enjoyable holiday spent by Mr. Leslie Hore-Belisha, M.P., and Capt. Arthur Evans, M.P., in Southern Ireland in September. The former Secretary for War visited, among other places, Kilkenny (where before leaving he asked to see the proprietress of his hotel, " and expressed to her the pleasure it gave him to enjoy the hospitality of such a famous and excellently-managed hostelry ") and Dublin, where he told an Irish Independent representative that " he was delighted with his holiday and the cordial hospitality with which he was everywhere treated." The Independent itself does not seem very warm about Mr. Hore-Belisha, and warns him rather pointedly that in Ireland what looks like cordiality is often " bolony." I know nothing about that. But Mr. McGovern should clearly have said he was going to Ireland for a holiday. You can always combine business with pleasure.
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