SECRET PAPERS LOST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20276, 10 April 1934, Page 1

SECRET PAPERS LOST.

Another Baillie-Stewart Case Possible. LONDON, April 3. The suggestion that certain papers w’hich were alleged to have been taken from a trunk by the Official Receiver might result in a case similar to the Baillie-Stewart inquiry was made when Basil John Karslake (twenty-three) appeared for his examination at Bournemouth Bankruptcy Court. Vri/H Karslake, who asked if, he could make an application under 'the Official! Secrets Act, said that he had served* as a second lieutenant in the Royal Tank Corps. He had also been in Portsmouth Police Force, but had recently come from Ireland after the issue of a warrant for his arrest. Tactical Matters. “ Certain papers handed into my charge were supposed to be kept particularly safe untik I handed them back,” he told the Registrar (Mr W. Hatton Budge). “ They related to tactical matters and mechanisation. They were placed in a trunk which has been retained by the Official Receiver. “ I was at Southmpton recently to take over certain things, and I found some of the things missing and all knowledge of them is now denied. Unless they are produced there is likely to be a general inquiry into their loss. They are particularly important. The Official Receiver (Mr C. J. Pykc) said the trunk was forced open as it might show where Karslake had gone. There was no pamphlet in it relating to tanks. The Registrar (Mr W. Hatton) declined to make any order in regard to the alleged documents, and said to Karslake: “ When you were either cashiered or sent in your papers of resignation, you did not return these papers. Now you have lost them you want to put the onus of their loss on to somebody else.” Karslake: No. The examination w*as formally adjourned.