1 Jas. J. Walsh M.D.
110 West 74th Street
New York June 29, 1923 My dear Mr. Quinn:- Not long after his death you and I saw
each other one of the rare times that I am sorry
to say we meet, for I wish it were oftener, I think
at Madison Square Garden, in the midst of a talk
by the late Burke Cocheran, God rest his soul, and
the conversation turned to Sir Roger Casement. I had not long before been shown some
manuscripts for my judgment on them as to public-
ation. They were supposed to be diaries written
by Sir Roger. I have been looking for some reference
to them in English print since and at last I have
found it. Basil Thomson in his volume My Experiences
at Scotland Yard, tells of finding the diaries in
Sir Roger's locked trucks taken from his London
lodgings and he says of them: It is enough to say
of the diaries that they could not be printed in
any age or in any language. I rather expect that sentence
will arouse attention and that we shall surely
hear more of the diaries before long. They are
evidently supposed to be in the archive of Scotland
Yard. A little later on page 102 he says: I
have made special inquiry with a view to ascertaining 2 how long Casement had been under the obsessions
disclosed in his diary and I feel certain that they
were of comparatively recent growth, not much before
the year 1910. This would seem to show that some
mental disintegration had begun to set in, though
it was not sufficient to impair his judgment of
right and wrong. That last clause is interesting
as showing how confidently Scotland Yard can judge
of little questions of insanity that might stop an
expert. As you knew Sir Roger very well you will
probably be interested in teh ten pages with regard
to him and the preceding ten pages on the Germans
and the Irish which begin with John Devoy and Judge
Cohalan and which are written so naively from the
English standpoint. I hope that you are very well and that all goes
well with you and I hope to see you sometime before
very long. Yours very sincerely Jas J Walsh