740.00116 EW/10–2444: Telegram
The Minister in Ireland (Gray) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:45 p.m.]
181. On October 23 being confined to my room with a cold, I arranged by telephone with Walshe that he receive our Secretary, Aaron Brown, who would transmit to him certain views regarding the Irish Aide-Mémoire dated October 9 that you had instructed me to express to the Irish Government, We had prepared a digest of your instructions contained in your No. 199 and this Mr. Brown in effect memorized.
Mr. Walshe received Brown with friendliness but professed surprise that the Irish reply had not been considered satisfactory. He asked if he might take down what Brown had to say. Brown said that the Minister’s instructions had been to transmit the Department’s views [Page 1445] orally but that if Mr. Walshe wished to record them stenographically he could raise no objection. A copy of Mr. Walshe’s notes was later given to Brown who approved them. This text is the subject of our telegram No. 182, October 24;72 60 to London.
Brown’s comprehensive report of the conversation which will be transmitted by the next courier73 discloses that Walshe had drafted the Irish reply after having obtained access to the Swiss reply. We reported in our No. 168, October 10, that this was likely to have been the case. Walshe said that if that were pronounced satisfactory he could not see why the Irish reply was not satisfactory. Brown said that he had not seen the Swiss reply nor had we been informed that it was satisfactory.
Walshe’s line in general was a profession of surprise that the Irish reply had been misunderstood, a display of hurt feelings and resentment at the “insults” which our views implied, and an attempt to appeal to the traditional friendship of Ireland for America. Walshe said that De Valera would “hit the ceiling” when he read paragraph 2 of our comment.
Walshe asked Brown how a war criminal should be defined and would Pétain be considered one. He said that if Pétain came to Ireland he would be honored as a soldier who had fought for his country. He said the French Minister had inquired about Pétain and expressed dissatisfaction with the Irish attitude. De la Forcade74 stuck by Pétain till Vichy dismissed him.
Walshe said that it was possible that his Government would wish to publish the aide-mémoires and asked what would be the attitude of the American Government. Brown said that he doubted that the American press and people would consider the Irish reply satisfactory if published; that, as far as he knew, the American Government did not contemplate asking the Irish Government either to publish or not to publish but that if the Irish Government decided to publish it was probable that the American Government would disclose its views on the Irish reply.
The interview closed with an exposition by Walshe of anti-German sentiment of the Irish Government and people. This is a new line and indicates Walshe’s personal hope of getting on the band wagon. He spent his summer vacation in 1940 with the German Minister at a sea coast hotel. They were intimate friends.
Repeated to London as Legation’s No. 181.