841D.513/52
The Minister in the Irish Free State (Cudahy) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 8.]
Sir: With reference to the Department’s Instruction No. 7 of October 4, 1937, I have the honor to report that on October 26, 1937 I called on Mr. J. P. Walshe, Permanent Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, at his office in the Government Buildings, Dublin.
I called Mr. Walshe’s attention to Sections 336 and 387 under Title 18 of the United States Code and told him the authorities in the American Post Office Department were in possession of evidence indicating that the Hospitals’ Trust, Limited, of the Irish Free State, was engaged in a systematic effort to countervene the provisions of these Statutes of the Criminal Law.
Specifically I directed his attention to Exhibits 1, 2 and 3 set forth in the copy of letter from the office of the Postmaster General of the United States under date of August 20, 1936, enclosed with Instruction No. 7 of October 4, 1937, above referred to, quoting pertinent evidence therefrom bearing out my statement.
Mr. Walshe stated that the sweepstakes and all activities in furtherance thereof were legal transactions sanctioned by the Public Hospitals Act of 1933, a legislative Act of the Dail, signed by the executive authorities of the Irish Free State which granted legal powers “to enable funds to be raised by means of sweepstakes and drawings of prizes for the benefit of certain classes of institutions and organizations affording social services, etc.” He said it was, therefore, clear that under the municipal law of the Free State there was no illegality involved but when I suggested that the effect of soliciting the purchase of sweepstake tickets in America, the engaging of agent distributors for this purpose and other similar activities by the Hospitals’ Trust, Limited, constituted an enterprise which had the effect of countervening the Criminal Law in the United States, Mr. Walshe agreed that such action was not consistent with the amity between friendly nations.
At my suggestion he promised to take the matter up with the Hospitals’ Trust, Limited, directing their attention to my protest and asking them in the furtherance of friendly relations between the Irish Free State and the United States to desist from further solicitation of purchasers for sweepstake tickets and from carrying on an organized effort for the distribution of such tickets.
Respectfully yours,