Volume 3 1926~1932


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 13 NAI DFA ES Box 35 File 251

Letter from Count Gerald O'Kelly de Gallagh to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(825/E/26) (Confidential) (Copy)

Brussels, 4 June 1926

In conversation recently with the foreign editor of La Nation Belge, a leading conservative paper in Brussels, this gentleman informed me that he was very interested in obtaining what information was available concerning Sir Roger Casement. He said that Sir Roger Casement's activities during the war and his pro-German sentiments did the Irish cause a great deal of harm in Belgium. I pointed out to him the Irish attitude towards Germany during the war was at least as justified as the Alsace-Lorraine attitude towards France (a point which he was quite willing to accept), but that none the less Sir Roger Casement had no personal illusions as to the faith to be placed by us in German assistance and that his diary and despatches left no doubt as to his views in the matter.

Would it be possible for you to let me have information on the subject which I might pass on to the gentleman in question. Not necessarily for publication but for his own information and to serve eventually as the basis of an étude should such an étude be judged opportune by me.

Mise, do chara,
[copy letter unsigned]