Memorandum from Seán Murphy to Liam Cosgrave (Dublin)

With reference to the second decision of the Government on the Taoiseach’s submission, viz., that we should formulate the principles, and, as far as possible, the details of the different aspects of our foreign policy, I feel I should send you these observations.¹

The outlines of our foreign policy have already been stated by the Taoiseach in his speeches in the United States and I feel they could probably be summarised as follows:-

1. Ireland’s foreign policy in its relations with other countries and international organisations will be always in favour of the maintenance of peace, or at least the avoidance of a Third World War.
2. We should endeavour to maintain good relations with all countries while avoiding entanglement with groups or blocs.
3. We should support the furtherance of the Christian way of life and Western civilisation.
4. We should ensure that neither our influence nor our vote can ever be used for the furtherance of the aims of Communism.
5. We should bear in mind that the national interest lies in the peace and prosperity of the Western world.
6. While we sympathise with the claims of people to freely dispose of themselves, we should be mindful of the effects of such sympathy on the other points above mentioned.

Having the above general lines as the directives of our foreign policy, I find it difficult to see how we can go into details. As an example of the difficulty, I would like to cite two questions which are almost certain to arise at the next meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations, viz., Cyprus and Algeria. I think it would be impossible for us to say now what action we may take at UN on either of these two questions. In either case the situation may fundamentally change between now and then, and, although, in both cases, we may sympathise with the claim of both peoples to freely dispose of themselves, we are bound to consider what the result of that disposal might mean to the peace of the world and particularly to the interests of this country.

In the case of Cyprus, it might well be that, if we vote in favour of the Cypriots, we might put ourselves in the position of disrupting the influence of NATO in that part of the world and leaving ourselves open to the accusation that we voted for the Cypriots to score off Britain with complete disregard for the general peace of the world. We must also realise that the Cypriots’ claim to dispose of themselves is not a claim for a Cypriot entity but of a change of allegiance from Britain to Greece. There is, of course, no comparison between the claims of Ireland and Cyprus.

On the Algerian question, which, in a sense, may be more delicate for us in that France will claim that Algeria is an integral part of Metropolitan France, although there are only 1 million French settlers in that country as against ten million natives, we would, I feel, have to know what the loss of Algeria to France, coupled with that of Morocco and Tunisia, might mean to the defence of the Western world, and, worse still, to open such a huge territory of Africa to the influences of Communism.

These two instances, I hope, may serve to show that, while we should endeavour to apply the principles which the Taoiseach has already formulated, nevertheless we should not, in my opinion, detail what our line will be until we are confronted with the facts and consequences of each situation.