Letter from Count Gerald O'Kelly de Gallagh to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(109/B/30)

I have the honour to inform you that I was able to have appointments today with the Ministers of Hungary, Romania, Holland, Siam and Latvia, and informed them of our candidature for a non-permanent seat on the Council of the L. of N.

HUNGARY The Hungarian Minister was exceedingly cordial and went so far as to say that he thought we might take Hungary's vote as a forgone conclusion. I have no idea what actual justification he has for such a statement but at all events his whole conversation showed a very great sympathy with the Saorstát position.

ROMANIA The Romanian Minister promised to write to his Government immediately and added that we could count on his personal support. He asked me a number of question about Ireland and was almost embarrassing in his desire to know our position as regards nationality.

HOLLAND The Dutch Minister was personally very sympathetic and promised to write to his Government in the sense desired.

SIAM The Siamese Minister received me with the statement that he had been in Ireland many years ago and as a young man had actually be attached to the Dublin Fusiliers at the Curragh when Lord Roberts was Commander-in-Chief in Ireland. This did not at first seem to promise well for his sympathies and I was all the more surprised at the support he promised us, which he gave chiefly on humanitarian grounds, stating that the small countries should make their voices heard at Geneva for the good of the world at large. I think he was sincere.

LATVIA The Latvian Minister promised his wholehearted support largely on historical and sentimental grounds - Latvia could not remain indifferent to the aspirations of any small people who had shown such a tenacious love of liberty as had the Irish. The Minister himself appears to be a very level-headed and able official and this expression of sentiment was all the more striking.

From my experience so far it would appear that a priori our candidature will be popular among most European states. From what I have been able to judge so far, I should say that if there could be such a thing as a completely free vote on the subject we would have an overwhelming majority. Unfortunately completely free votes are non-existent in politics.