Dear Mr. Chamberlain,
As Sir Thomas Inskip has doubtless informed you, I expressed to him this morning the gravest concern of the Irish Government at the possibility of any form of Conscription being applied in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland².

Mr. De Valera on being informed of the terms of your statement this afternoon instructed me to let you know immediately that he is very perturbed indeed by your announcement.

He is anxious to have an assurance that there is no intention of applying Conscription to the people of the Six Counties. At least one-third of the population there are cut off from Ireland against their will. Any attempt to conscript them would be resented as an outrage.

In union with our fellow-countrymen in the Six Counties we are prepared to undertake the defence of the whole of Ireland against anyone seeking to get a foothold there. That, Mr. de Valera suggests, is the constructive line to take and the line that would serve the true interest of Great Britain, whereas the introduction of Conscription in the Six Counties by the British Government for the British Army can only be regarded as an act of war against our nation, and will provoke the bitterest hostility to England wherever there are Irishmen throughout the world³.