Extracts from a confidential report from Frederick H. Boland
to Seán Murphy (Dublin)
(Confidential)

[matter omitted]

Sir Anthony Eden’s resignation came as a surprise to most people here. Actually, we heard of it before the British delegation. Commander Noble, the Minister of State at the Foreign Office, came up to me in the corridor after lunch and asked me whether I had heard the ‘rumour’ that Eden had resigned. I had already been told by both the AP and UP correspondents that the official statement announcing his resignation was on their tapes. When I told Commander Noble this, he made the comment ‘What a pity!’. He asked me whether I knew what grounds Sir Anthony had given for his resignation. The correspondents had not mentioned this point so I was unable to answer his question, but the fact that he was doubtful himself as to what ground would be given publicly is perhaps indicative. The general assumption here at the moment is that Mr. Butler will succeed Sir Anthony Eden. Strength has been given to this assumption by the fact that Reuter’s agency circulated Mr. Butler’s curriculum vitae this afternoon to their American subscribers. It is also a general assumption here that, if Mr. Butler becomes Prime Minister, there will be important changes in the British Cabinet. Several representatives here expect that one of the first to go will be Mr. Selwyn Lloyd – mainly on account of his close identification with Sir Anthony Eden’s unsuccessful foreign policy.

The various committees of the Assembly are working at high pressure and we are following their work as best we can with the limited staff resources at our disposal. The Portuguese Ambassador approached us this morning to support Portugal against the attacks being made in the Fourth Committee on the doctrine of the Portuguese Government that Goa and other overseas Portuguese territories are an integral part of Portugal. The doctrine is one which we would probably find hard to endorse, even if we were in a position to do so, but, in fact, we have not been attending the meetings of the Fourth Committee at all and it would probably be a mistake for us to suddenly appear at it merely for the purpose of helping Portugal on this issue.

We have heard little or no comment since our return on the subject of IRA activities in Ireland. This morning, however, we met Mr. Lister,² who has the desk in the State Department which deals with Irish affairs, and he made the comment that he had read the text of the Taoiseach’s broadcast last Sunday³ with much interest and he thought it was very courageous in what must be an extremely difficult and delicate situation.