Letter from Seán Murphy (for Joseph P. Walshe) to Seán Lester (Geneva)
(27/30)

Dispute between Colombia and Peru

I am directed by the Minister to refer to Doc. C/Col.Per./1 dated the 25th March 1933, communicated to the Members of the Advisory Committee set up in the matter of the dispute between Colombia and Peru. With regard to the question contained in the said document, I am directed to state that the Government would be disposed to prohibit the exportation and re-exportation of arms, etc. to Peru in the event of their considering that that country is not conforming itself to the recommendations adopted by the Council on the 18th March, 1933, or in particular that it is forcibly opposing the measures that Colombia may take in accordance with these recommendations. The Minister considers, however, that as arms, etc. are not manufactured in or exported from the Irish Free State it would be inappropriate to reply in the affirmative to the question referred to without reference to that fact, unless here is general support amongst the other States represented on the Committee for the proposal to prohibit export and re-export of arms, etc. to Peru. As you are aware arms etc. are not at the present time manufactured in the Irish Free State and the actual exports of arms etc. from the Irish Free State to Peru is a wholly unlikely contingency. The re-export of arms etc. from the Irish Free State is also similarly unlikely. The prohibition of such export and re-export would, therefore, be of no practical importance in so far as the course of the dispute itself is concerned.

You will understand that the Minister desires to avoid a situation in which the Irish Free State would be too prominent in the acceptance¹ of an obligation the burden of which falls not upon the Irish Free State but upon other States.