702.0641D/13
The Chargé in the Irish Free State ( Denby ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s Instruction of May 8, 1934, Diplomatic Serial No. 2428, File No. 702.06/279 [278a], entitled: “Free Registration of Motor Vehicles.”3
On the receipt of the above Instruction I informed the Department of External Affairs of the Irish Free State Government that the legislature of the State of New York had enacted a measure which granted foreign consular officers reciprocal free registration of motor vehicles and I inquired whether, in these circumstances, the Irish Free State Government would be in a position to accord similar treatment to American consular officers here.
I beg to transmit enclosed herewith, for the Department’s information and records in this relation, a copy of a letter of September 24, 1934,3 addressed to me by Mr. Sean Murphy, Assistant Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, stating, in part, as follows:
“I have pleasure in informing you that after consulting the Departments concerned it has now been agreed that as from the 1st January, 1935, American consular officers of career of the rank of Consul General, Consul and Vice-Consul resident in the city and county of Dublin, will be exempt from the payment of road tax on their motor cars.”
Mr. Murphy informed me orally that he regretted to be unable at this time to accede to my request that American consular officers in Cork also be granted exemption from the road tax—which tax, as the Department is aware from my despatch No. 10, of April 17, 1934 and from other related correspondence, is a very heavy one, being calculated on the basis of a pound sterling per horse power per annum.
Mr. Murphy stated that his Government felt it to be right, in view of the action taken by the State of New York, to grant a corresponding exemption in what might be considered a corresponding area in the Irish Free State, that is to say to grant exemption from the motor road tax to American consular officers resident in the city and county [Page 1001] of Dublin. He added that the Free State Government would be pleased to grant American consular officers in Cork, on the basis of reciprocity, all privileges and exemptions corresponding to those which might be granted to the Irish Free State consular officers stationed, in the United States, in Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco.
Respectfully yours,