Volume 6 1939~1941


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 350 NAI DFA 2006/39

Confidential report from John W. Dulanty to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(No. 64) (Secret) (Copy)

London, 27 November 1940

Although in his public statements about the war prospects the British Prime Minister is naturally very guarded I hear that his private opinion is that, whilst they have of course not won, they have, to use his own words, 'turned the corner'.

Professor F.A. Lindemann,1 F.R.S., a Physicist of European reputation, is an intimate friend of Mr. Churchill. His scientific forecasts are said to have been exceptionally accurate, particularly about the German air position and air warfare generally. Referring to An Taoiseach's Dáil speech he said to a friend of mine recently 'What made the Irish Prime Minister fly off the handle about Churchill's reference to the Irish ports'? I mention this remark because his very close association with Churchill lends a possible significance to it.

1 Frederick Alexander 'the Prof' Lindemann (1886-1957), 1st Viscount Cherwell, English physicist; scientific adviser to the British government and confidant of Winston Churchill; Paymaster-General (1942-5, 1951-3).