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Volume 7 1941~1945

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No. 506  NAI DFA Secretary's Files P78

Memorandum from Joseph P. Walshe to Eamon de Valera (Dublin), regarding a
conversation with Sir John Maffey concerning war criminals

DUBLIN, 14 November 1944

Taoiseach, Minister for External Affairs.
Sir John Maffey called to see me last evening to tell me that there was a Question down in the House of Commons for answer today (Tuesday, 14th November). He showed me the proposed reply which he had just received from the Dominions Office.

The first part of the reply was a general paraphrase of our answer to the United States Government, but the second part (the exact text of which Sir John Maffey has just given me on the telephone) is as follows:-

'The United Kingdom Government for their part wish to make it clear that it would certainly, in the words used by the Éire Government, be 'detrimental to the interests of the Irish people' were war criminals to be harboured in Éire.'

I said at once that no ordinary person could read the second part without seeing in it some form of threat.

Sir John Maffey agreed without hesitation and he immediately left for his office in order to secure from the Dominions Office some modification which would indicate an acceptance of our reply, especially the reference to the interests of friendly States, as complying with their request.

When I telephoned Sir John Maffey this morning to ask him what had been the result of his talk with the Dominions Office, he said that the latter had explained to him that:

  1. There was no threat whatsoever implied and that he should tell us so formally.
  2. The second part of the reply was the only way in which the British could show their acceptance of the favourable interpretation without trouble with the House of Commons and with the American Government.
  3. It was quite definitely intended to be regarded as an acceptance of our reply as favourable.
  4. There have been consultations with the American Government on the reply. (Sir John Maffey said that he was quite certain of this, though he was not told so in so many words.)
  5. They (the British) are in a real difficulty owing to the 'cagey' character of our reply, and they are doing their best to get themselves and us out of a difficulty. (Sir John Maffey commented on this that he himself knew we had to be 'cagey' owing to our position as a small nation.)
  6. The friendly State argument would not be understood by the ordinary public since, so long as the German Minister was in Dublin, it would have wider implications for them.

I told Sir John Maffey that we were going to publish the text of our Aide mémoire in reply to the American request this afternoon.

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