Letter from Michael L. Skentelbery to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(Confidential)

I had lunch with Linebaugh of the State Department on Friday last, the day you left, and I had a general talk with him which, while it probably covered the same ground as the talks you had with Armour and Hickerson, may have contained some points of interest to you. The following is a summary of what Linebaugh said and he was outlining the official State Department attitude towards us at present. My replies were, of course, on the lines you indicated to us.

Irish-American relations have come a long way since his meeting with me in December last (see my memorandum of the 30th of December 1946)¹ largely due to Gray's going. They are very good and the only two possible irritants he can think of are (1) the question of the repatriation of the German Minister and (2) the question of the disposal of German assets.

The first, while it still rankles (presumably in the mind of Hickerson) is inclined to be forgotten and is therefore not very important. The second is not solely an Irish-American question - it is an Irish-Allies question, but when it comes up for discussion before the Reparations Commission in Brussels the American representative will say that they still have some unanswered queries in the matter.

The State Department attitude to Partition is that they recognize it as a problem between Ireland and the UK and they would welcome its solution. He did not think, however, they would be less neutral or suggest to London that the British say publicly that they would welcome a solution too.

With regard to our application to the United Nations, he told me in confidence that Herschel Johnson² will give special attention to Ireland in his speech when the question of our admission comes up again towards the end of this month.

It might interest you to know that when Hickerson was going out to lunch with you on Friday, he called in to Linebaugh and asked him 'was there anything new or would he just play the record'. Linebaugh told him there was nothing new, so I presume that he 'played the record' to you.

I shall be lunching with Sweeney³ tomorrow and shall let you know anything I can find out regarding our position under the Marshall Plan.