Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Seán Lester (Paris)
(Secret) (Copy)

With reference to your secret telegram No. 52 of the 19th instant¹ the receipt of which I am hereby to acknowledge, I am directed by the Minister to state that his views with regard to the Chinese statement and to all other proposals tending towards the invocation of Article 16 of the Covenant, remain as set out in this Department's minute of to-day's² date in reply to your note of the 16th instant.³ The 'Daily Express' of to-day contains a report from its Paris Correspondent (H. J. Greenwall) to the effect that General Dawes is endeavouring to persuade his Government to support the League in the adoption of active measures against Japan.

Whether every avenue of pacific settlement may be said to have been explored and the time to have come for the adoption of measures of coercion by the Members of the League, those who are actually taking part in the Council's discussions are in the best position to express an opinion. The Minister would not, of course, use the Irish vote on the Council against any expression of opinion which might logically be followed by the application of coercive measures by the States Members of the League, if such expression were unanimously agreed to by the representatives, on the Council, of those states upon whom the principal burden of the application of such measures would fall. He does, however, feel that with the Covenant drafted as it is at present, the League is much stronger as a court of conciliation than as an engine of coercion, and, in any case, he takes the definite view that the initiative in any action of the Council which might involve the application of the sanctions provided for in Article 16, must come from the states who will have to bear the burden of their execution, and that there must be complete agreement between those states before the Irish Government can associate itself with any decision of that kind. You will, no doubt, continue to keep the Minister informed of any developments.