800.796/10–744
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of British Commonwealth Affairs (Hickerson)
Mr. Paul Gore-Booth, First Secretary of the British Embassy, called me on the telephone late yesterday afternoon and referred to his conversation with me on October 291 in regard to the invitation to Ireland to attend the Civil Aviation Conference. Mr. Gore-Booth said that the British Embassy had received further information from the Foreign Office which clarified somewhat this matter which had [Page 555] been obscure to him as well as to me when we talked before. He said the Foreign Office feels that if all of the neutral countries had been invited to the Conference without discrimination they would of course have had no observations to make in respect to Ireland. Not all neutrals were however invited. One neutral country quite important to civil aviation, that is Argentina he said, was not invited. In view of the problems presented to the British Government in consequence of Ireland’s neutrality, the British Government would have been glad for an opportunity to comment in regard to an invitation to Ireland, even though they recognize the outstanding importance of Ireland in civil aviation matters. I told him that I had taken note of his comments. I inquired whether the British Embassy’s further telegram indicated what observations the British Government would have made had we informed them of our intention to invite Ireland and he replied that it did not.
- Memorandum of conversation not printed.↩