841D.51/151
The Secretary of State to the Minister in the Irish Free State ( Sterling )
Sir: Referring to previous communications to you regarding settlement by the Irish Free State with the subscribers to the so-called Irish Republic Loans floated in the United States, the Department encloses for your information a copy of a printed communication addressed to it under date of March 12, 1928, by counsel for the [Page 94] “Republic Bondholders’ Committee”; also a letter from them dated March 19, 1928, and the enclosure therewith.10
The Department desires that you address a formal communication to the Government of the Irish Free State in an endeavor to ascertain the official attitude of that Government toward the American subscribers to these loans and what steps that Government expects to take looking to a settlement of these obligations.
You should point out—
1. That according to the information furnished this Government, approximately $4,000,000 ($3,985,933.30) of the proceeds of the loans floated in the United States were sent to Ireland, and that the Irish Free State either received the money or the benefits thereof, the last of the said sum in the amount of $400,000 on deposit in the National Land Bank, Ltd., Dublin, having been taken possession of by the Free State on February 15, 1927, pursuant to an order of the High Court of Justice.
2. That the obligation of the Free State to reimburse the American subscribers to the loan was formally and effectually recognized by the Government through the passage on February 18, 1924, of the Loans and Funds Act, authorizing the Minister of Finance to effect settlement with the subscribers.
3. That the liability of the Free State has also been recognized from time to time by various high officials of that Government, notably (a) by the President of the Executive Council in a deposition filed in the action instituted by the Free State in the courts of New York for the purpose of obtaining possession of funds held in banks in New York City, wherein he stated:
“I was a member of the Parliament which authorized the collection of these funds. They were authorized to be collected for certain purposes, for the Nation and not for any individual in the Nation or any party in the Nation, but for the Nation and Government of the Nation. No other person in this Country has a better right to speak on that subject than myself. I am speaking on behalf of the Nation in whose behalf these funds were collected. Others may speak as individuals, but I speak with the voice of the Nation and in that voice I demand this fund.
“Those people” (referring to the Trustees who floated the Loans in the United States of America) “were our agents, we accept responsibility for them and will honor this responsibility.
“The reason why we interfere in that case is that this Mr. DeValera was our agent and that he collected moneys on behalf of the people of Ireland and we desire to repay these moneys to the subscribers, and they can do what they wish with them when they get the money repaid.
“Q. Now, do I understand that your attitude towards the repayment of this money and your desire to obtain the money are both dictated [Page 95] by a sense of the responsibility as representing the Irish Nation. A. Yes.
“Q. Does the Dail now, of your present Government, represent the Irish Nation? A. Yes”;
(b) by Minister Smiddy who, on August 12, 1922, in verifying the complaint which had been filed with the court in New York, stated:
“Annexed hereto and marked ‘Exhibit 5’ is a true copy of one of the certificates given to subscribers to the fund mentioned in the complaint.” (Said exhibit is a copy of the Bond Certificate appearing at Finding No. 30 of the Findings of Fact submitted herewith). “In connection with my mission to the United States Michael Collins, as Minister of Finance, stated to me personally that the Irish Free State recognizes fully, as its own obligations, the obligations to the holders of the certificates in question, and that the Irish Free State will comply fully with the terms thereof”;
(c) by Mr. Collins, as President of the Cabinet of the Provisional Government of Ireland and Minister of Finance, who, according to a deposition of Bishop Michael Fogarty taken in Dublin and read at the hearing in New York, stated at a meeting in the Mansion House at Dublin, February 23, 1922, that, if given authority, he would reimburse the American subscribers to the loans within a fortnight.
So far as this Government is informed, all the responsible officials of the Irish Free State, Legislative, Executive and Judicial, have admitted the obligation of the Free State to reimburse the subscribers to these loans.
You may state that your Government would greatly appreciate a definite statement from the Irish Free State as to whether and when it expects to effect settlement of this matter.
The Department is being importuned by the American certificate holders and desires that you earnestly impress upon President Cosgrave this Government’s conviction that the Irish Free State should make some definite arrangements to effect a settlement of this matter, and that you endeavor discreetly to ascertain whether the certificate holders would have a right of action in the courts of the Free State against the Government.
I am [etc.]
[File copy not signed]
- None printed.↩