Volume 10 1951~1957


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 353 NAI DFA/10/P/253

Extract from a letter from Thomas J. Kiernan to Seán Murphy (Dublin)
'Otto Strasser'
(Secret)

Bonn, 4 July 1955

  1. In the course of a private conversation with the new Foreign Minister, I asked Dr. von Brentano1 what was the precise importance attached to the political activities of Dr. Otto Strasser. He said none. Strasser represents no danger whatever to the Western German Republic. He is a loud talker, an egoist, but is harmless through lack of support.
  2. As this view was in contradiction to that formerly expressed by the Political Division of the Foreign Office and reported by Mr. Belton on 30th March, 1955,2 I recounted the broad particulars of Strasser’s visit to Ireland from the 15th to 18th March last. When I mentioned that we had permitted Strasser to enter, Dr. von Brentano said: ‘What else could you do? We should do the same. He holds a German passport’.

[matter omitted]

1 Dr. Heinrich von Brentano (1904-64), German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs (1955-61).

2 See No. 333.