Further to our recent conversations with regard to the death sentences recently passed on James Richards and Peter Barnes for the Coventry explosion, Mr. Eden told me today that Sir John Anderson¹ had said that when the appeal in those cases reached him he would consider it with a special care. This consideration however would be limited to purely legal aspects. If there were other considerations it would be for Mr. Eden to put them forward.

The latter asked me to assure An Taoiseach that he was fully alive to the political side of this unfortunate Coventry outrage both for the Irish Government and for their own. He would therefore be most willing to present any case which the Irish Government felt like submitting and would go fully into the matter with Mr. Chamberlain. We would appreciate of course that this was in no sense a promise that anything could be done but it was a definite undertaking to see what could be done.