Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Seán Moynihan (Dublin)
(29/13)

A Chara,

The Minister for External Affairs wishes that the circulation of Despatches should be reduced to the absolute minimum, and that Despatches should not be sent out of the Department at all unless the adequate handling of a particular question or questions raised in the Despatch requires that another Department should see it. The custom of sending copies of Despatches indiscriminately to the Executive Council Department has accordingly been dropped.

So long as the President remains Minister for External Affairs he is in touch directly with all our correspondence with the British and other Governments. If and when the President ceases to be Minister for External Affairs he will be kept in touch by his Minister for External Affairs.

Despatches received from or sent to the British or other Governments will be sent to the Executive Council Department when some particular action is required to be taken by that Department or when the Minister for External Affairs wishes them to be distributed to the Members of the Executive Council.