Confidential Report from John W. Dulanty to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(Secret and Confidential) (Copy)

I saw Mr. J.H. Thomas this morning and delivered to him the Minister's letter of yesterday,¹ at the same time showing him the contents of the letter from the President to the Prime Minister.²

I handed to him six typewritten copies of excerpts from the President's speech at Charleville yesterday in accordance with the directions. These I supplemented by the verbal representations which the Minister had at a meeting in his house yesterday evening authorised me to make - representations of the serious ill consequences that would follow upon the acceptance of an amendment against us on the Statute of Westminster Bill.

I received the impression that Mr. Thomas read the letters hurriedly and heard my representations a little impatiently because he wanted to make a statement to me himself and there was not a great deal of time available. He did, however, attach great importance to, and was thankful for, the extracts from the President's speech.

He said that his difficulty on Friday was that practically nobody was in the House except the Diehards and as he was in charge he was determined that whatever happened later the Bill should not be defeated on the second reading. He states this was Mr. Churchill's intention though I do not think that statement can be reconciled with Mr. Churchill's own request that the motion for rejection should not be proceeded with. In any event Mr. Thomas seemed quite clear that if the Bill had to be voted on on Tuesday it might very easily have been lost. That, I am bound to add, was my own impression so far as the attendance in the Chamber itself was concerned. Mr. Thomas proceeded to say that towards the end of the afternoon he consulted the Solicitor General and got him to agree that he, Mr Thomas, should get up and promise consideration of amendments. 'I was playing for time' said Mr. Thomas, 'and I intended to have a very different House on Tuesday to that from Friday. I therefore promised that the Government would consider amendments though you will have noticed I did not say "favourable consideration"'. This offer to the House, he said, saved the Bill from defeat.

He then saw Sir Austen Chamberlain, a signatory to the Treaty, and satisfied himself as to the mischievous tactics of Mr. Churchill. He says that he also sent a very sharp rebuke to Mr. Churchill saying that his speech would do more harm than even he, Mr. Churchill, would wish. He next saw Mr. Baldwin and informed that gentleman that it was imperative that he should attend on Tuesday and make a speech which would go some way towards modifying the erroneous and unfortunate effect on the House which Mr Churchill's speech had made. Mr. Baldwin agreed to do this.

Mr. Thomas proceeded to say that he cancelled private engagements for the week-end and spent the week-end to what he considered great advantage. He saw the Editor of the 'Times' and says that the result of that interview is the leader in this morning's 'Times' which is favourable to the Statute going through without amendment. Also he saw Lord Beaverbrook and got him to insert a strong leader which appears in today's 'Daily Express'.

He then informed the Prime Minister that the Cabinet must meet in view of the serious position of the Bill. The Prime Minister had agreed and Mr Thomas informed me that he was expecting in the course of the next few minutes, in the room in which we were talking, Mr. Baldwin and Sir Thomas Inskip³, who would be chiefly concerned with the Bill in the House of Commons, and Lord Hailsham who would be in charge in the House of Lords, to attend for a special conference on this question. He stated further that Lord Londonderry had said he would like to attend and Mr. Thomas had agreed to this, but which line Lord Londonderry was taking he was not sure. 'At any rate', Mr. Thomas said, 'I think the position has improved somewhat since last Friday night, and though I do not think we are out of the wood yet, I am less apprehensive than I was'.

As I was leaving Mr. Thomas' room Sir Edward Harding spoke to me. He said that the President's speech would be a great help on Tuesday. He thought, however, that Mr. Thomas was perhaps a little too sanguine about the result in the House of Commons. As to the result in the House of Lords, he said, of course nobody could say, but he would be surprised if the Lords passed it without the amendment against us.