THE CASEMENT DIARIFS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 914, 15 February 1957, Page 5

THE CASEMENT DIARIFS

Sir,-In the course of a review of a book about Roger Casement in a recent issue of The Listener, mention was made of diaries said to have been kept by Casement which proved that he was a homosexual. I accepted this, but I have since read The Eyes of the Navy, a biographical study of Admiral Reginald Hall, Director of Naval Intelligence in World War I, by Admiral Sir William James. The book makes it quite plain that there was official interference in the course of justice to defeat Casement’s appeal and the book casts strong doubts on the existence of the diaries. Admiral James, a great friend of Admiral Hall, writes: Bg ey tten copies of pages of the diaries and photographic reproductions of > ermcos: pages were circulated in London clubs and the House of Commons, and were seen by journalists who were known to be sympathetic to Casement and by the signatories of the appeal for Casement’s reprieve, whilst the appeal was pending (my italics). The effect was to kill all sympathy for Casement, and John Redmond and others ceased their efforts on his behalf (p. 113). On the next page the author writes: According to Dr. ge Hall showed extracts from the diary to Mr. Ben Allen, of the Associated Press . . . and told him that he could have them for exclusive publication in the Associated Press. Mr. Allen would not submit the extracts to his chief in the London office without first establishing their authenticity from Casement. This was not permitted. . . Hall took no steps to dispute Dr. Maloney’s statements when they appeared in the Irish Times, In his articles Dr. Maloney also said that the extracts were circulated at the ychological moment by Hall himself. his was not denied either. Admiral James goes on to say: "It may be thought that Hall's action was not entirely to his credit, but to him Casement was a traitor’-and should not get away with it. Some would argue that all’s fair in war. In this instance, however, Casement was supposed to have had a fair

trial. This is hardly so when the Director of Naval Intelligence is allowed to circulate nauseating accounts of homosexuality allegedly done and written by Casement at a time when Casement’s appeal was pending-accounts which not only had nothing to do with the indictment but came from diaries which’ to this day no one other than those engaged in prosecuting Casement has ever seen, and the diaries were the only source of the allegations, Admiral James states that there is no doubt that Hall and Thomson, then head of Scotland Yard, plotted the leakages. Thomson resigned on request a short time after the trial. Hall was not honoured by his country after the war, as were all other military leaders in comparable positions, his brilliant work notwithstanding. He was not retained by the Navy. He became a politician.

G.

B.

(Wellington).