1 September 9, 1916 G. Gavan Duffy, Esq., 4 Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn, London. W.C. Dear Mr Duffy: I have just returned from Washington and find your
letter of August 3rd received at my office on August 28th. I I am very sorry that my cable arrived too late. I
dictated some notes about Casement and they were published in
the New York Times of a few Sundays ago. I sent you a copy two
or three weeks ago. I hope you will receive it. I shall be glad
if will you will let me know what you think of it. I spoke frankly.
If you can give me a word of confirmation regarding the statements
in the last paragraph against Germany, I should much value it
and would promise not to quote you directly, but I should like
to be fortified by a statement from you in that respect. Kuno
Meyer has threatened to 'show me up' and prove the falsity of
that statement, which I made on the very best direct evidence. Shane Leslie told me of your courageous act in defending
Casement. You did a fine courageous thing. It was an act that
I would expect of a man of your name and blood. The English have been circulating reports on Casement's
degeneracy. They came to me from all quarters. I was finally
shown what was purported to be photographic copies of his diary
and the handwriting looked like his. But I wrote to the
Ambassador and to the Naval Attachee stating that I thought
it was a dirty piece of business to circulate such reports, that
even if the statements were true his private life had nothing
to do with his public acts, and that if this stuff or semi—official
Scotland Yard business were continued , I would open up again,
would re-tell the whole story of the Piggott forgeries, would
point out the fact that they had this diary for months, that if
they had used it when he was in Germany it would have prevented
his return to Ireland, and would have made him literally a man 2 without a country, but that they held it until they had him
within their power, until he could not fight back or take any
action or vindicate his name, and that I would let the American
people judge as to its genuineness and authenticity and as
to the baseness of the motives of those who were circulating it.
A few days went by and the Naval Attachee told me that he had
received a peremptory cable from Gray under no circumstances to
show the diary. I think that my word of warning worked. Sincerely yours,