Letter from Seán Lester to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(M.L. 05/0115) (Confidential)

A Chara,

Saorstát Delegation to the League Assembly 1929

In a conversation with Mr. Phelan yesterday he made a suggestion which I thought so good that I report it. It was, he thought, essential to continue to send from Dublin a delegation at least as strong on the Ministerial side as before. But he pointed out that it would be extremely useful to the new Ministers at Paris and Berlin, and also to the delegation, if Count O'Kelly and Mr. Binchy were to be brought here for a week or so during the Assembly. They need not be delegates but could be described as substitute delegates. He thought it would be useful to these Ministers in as much as it would make them appear more important and potentially useful in the eyes of the Foreign Offices in France and Germany. By raising their personal status in this way their influence would be increased. Opportunities would occur at Geneva for useful contacts.

It would also be useful as another opportunity for personal contact between these representatives themselves and the Minister and Secretary on an occasion when policy has often to be improvised and when work is actually in progress on many matters.

I am not attempting to expound the proposal at great length, but if it meets with your approval, I would suggest that even if the posts at Paris and Berlin have been, in September, occupied for only a short time it would be worth beginning this year.

The cost would fall on the League of Nations vote.