841D.01/211: Telegram
The Minister in Ireland (Gray) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:20 p.m.]
132. This appears to be the psychological moment for presenting the proposed Irish note, the subject your 110, October 5, 9 p.m. Anglo-Portuguese arrangement31 has profoundly agitated public opinion. However de Valera regards it as a betrayal of Eire by Portugal.… De Valera will in all probability continue to adhere to strict neutrality.
[Page 159]On restudying the draft of the note in question which you sent via Winant I would recommend no mention of grievances at all. Is it not a mistake in such a friendly treatment as this to raise the question of grievance? Would recommend therefore excision of the passage beginning on page 4 from the words “will know how to meet their responsibilities in the present situation” to the passage on page 6 beginning “I believe it is now time therefore for Ireland.”
Repeated to Winant.
- On October 12, British Prime Minister Churchill announced in the House of Commons that the Portuguese Government had agreed to grant to the United Kingdom naval facilities in the Azores. For text of agreement, effected by exchange of notes, August 17, 1943, see British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxlvi, pp. 447–452.↩