Extract from the minutes of a meeting of the Cabinet
(Cab. 6/94)

4. Governor General.

A doubt having arisen as to whether, on the vesting in the Chief Justice of the powers and authorities of the Governor General in the circumstances provided for in section III of the Letters Patent constituting the office of Governor General of the Irish Free State dated 6th December 1922, the Chief Justice is thereupon obliged to take the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Office prescribed by section II of the Instructions to the Governor General of the Irish Free State, dated 6th December, 1922, it was decided that the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs should travel to London at once to instruct the High Commissioner to discuss informally with the King the question of modifying the said Letters Patent and the said Instructions so as to make it clear that, in the circumstances mentioned, it would not be obligatory on the Chief Justice to take the Oaths in question.