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6.4 5. fact that the defendants were confined and questioned in a hostile atmosphere. There must have been some purpose in the court's calling attention to these circumstances. If they were absolutely irrelevant to its decision the Court either would not have brought them out, or else would heve indicated that they were not pertinent to the result. The decisions may be construed, therefore, as holding that if a defendant is held too long before being brought before a comrissioner under harsh and hostile circumstances end subjected to whet may be considered as ill-treatment, then a confession obteined duriug such an interval will be inadmissible in evidence, even without proof of actual duress. It seems to me that it is impossible to determine actually what the court decided in these cases, - whether it intended to enunciate the general broad proposition suggested above, or whether its decision is the more narrow one as just indicated. The opinions are somewhet ambiguous on that point. It does not seem to me that as a practical matter the Federal Bureau of Investigation is called upon to change its practice on the basis of these decisions. My understand- ing is that the Bureau always brings its prisoners before a commissioner within a reasonable time, unless the prisoner in writing waives such appearance,