740.0011 European War 1939/17852
The Irish Minister (Brennan) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honor to transmit to Your Excellency the following extracts from the speech delivered by Mr. de Valera, Chief of the Government of Ireland, at Cork on December 14th, 1941:
“Since this terrible war began our sympathies have gone out to all the suffering peoples who have been dragged into it. Further hundreds of millions have become involved since I spoke at Limerick a fortnight ago. Its extension to the United States of America brings a source of anxiety and sorrow to every part of this land. There is scarcely a family here which has not a member or near relative in that country. In addition to the ties of blood there has been between our two nations a long association of friendship and regard, continuing uninterruptedly from America’s own struggle for independence down to our own. The part that American friendship played in helping us to win the freedom that we enjoy in this part of Ireland has been gratefully recognized and acknowledged by our people. It would be unnatural then if we did not sympathize in a special manner with the people of the United States and if we did not feel with them in [Page 251] all the anxieties and trials which this war must bring upon them. For this reason strangers who do not understand our conditions have begun to ask how America’s entry into the war will affect our state policy here. We answered that question in advance: The policy of the State remains unchanged. We can only be a friendly neutral. From the moment this war began there was for this State only one policy possible, neutrality. Our circumstances of History, the incompleteness of our national freedom through the partition of our country made any other policy impracticable. Any other policy would have divided our people, and for a divided nation to fling itself into this war would be to commit suicide. Of necessity we adopted the policy of neutrality but we have been under no illusions about it. We have been fully alive to the difficulties and dangers which it brought: We are fully aware that in a world at war each set of belligerents are ever ready to regard those who are not with them as against them, but the course we have followed is a just course. God has been pleased to save us during the years of war that have already passed. We pray that He may be pleased to save us to the end but we must do our part.”
Please accept [etc.]