No. 493  NAI DFA Secretary's Files P78

Memorandum by Joseph P. Walshe regarding the United States
attitude to asylum for war criminals

DUBLIN, 23 October 1944

Mr. David Gray, who is in bed with a cold, telephoned me today and said his Government had some remarks to make about our reply to the American request for assurance in relation to war criminals. As he was unlikely to be up for a few days, he said, he would send Mr. Brown to see me.1

Mr. Brown told me that his Minister has been instructed to make certain observations to the Government concerning the recent request for assurances. These observations did not constitute a formal reply. They were not to be framed as an Aide-mémoire and were not intended for publication. He then repeated from memory the four following points:-

'1. The American Government fails to find in the Irish reply the assurances they requested.

2. The American Government is at a loss to understand how the Irish Government can feel that justice, charity, honour and the interest of the nation could require the admission of Axis war criminals.

3. The American Government had thought that the Irish Government would consider Axis war criminals as undesirable aliens whose admission to Ireland would be contrary to her own interests.

4. The American Government had hoped that the Irish Government, representing a sovereign State, would, in the exercise of her sovereignty, unequivocably co-operate with the United Nations by proclaiming denial of asylum to Axis war criminals, and that such a course would be welcomed by the United Nations.'

I wrote down those points textually as they were given to me. I then had them typed and I handed a copy to Mr. Brown which he examined and passed as being the precise terms of his message.

[initialled] J.P.W.

1 Aaron Brown, Secretary, United States Legation, Dublin.


Purchase Volumes Online

Purchase Volumes Online

ebooks

ebooks

The Royal Irish Academy's Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series has published an eBook of confidential correspondence on the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations.
 

Free Download


International Counterparts

The international network of Editors of Diplomatic Documents was founded in 1988. Delegations from different parts of the world met for the first time in London in 1989.
Read more ....



Website design and developed by FUSIO