George Gavan Duffy to Diarmuid O'Hegarty (Dublin)
(No. 6)

Our minute no. 3 has been returned, bearer having failed to find Art O'Brien who was to forward it. Yours of 7th inst. to hand; also your bundles with further parchments, copies of map and pamphlets. Mrs G[avan] D[uffy] arrived on 17th. As to Egypt etc., my no.5 will have reached you and we await instructions, in view of that explanation.¹ As to copies of full text of letters of Walsh and Dunne, we are promised a complete set for you, but owing to the fierce pressure kept up from day to day by the writers and consequent strain on secretarial activities, we have not yet been able to obtain them.

Walsh ran across T P O'Connor yesterday in the street, who said he had given instructions that the Party are to refrain from criticism or interference and that as a result of W's campaign 'a larger measure than I had thought possible for a generation to come' is to be introduced by Ll. George.

Walsh and Dunne propose to go home on Sat. 28th inst. unless something unforeseen happens; we have the news of the President's arrival in U S today.

Ireland's Case. We presented this to a secretary of Clemenceau yesterday; he said he would hand it to C, who was away, that same evening. A copy will go to all the papers tomorrow and a parchment copy to the various delegates. We gave Clemenceau the official covering letter as well as a covering letter of our own which should appear in the Freeman; we enclose copy in English and French. This will probably end our direct Peace Conference work.

Further work here. The French side of the work here has been most disappointing; the French press and politicians are very anxious to keep on good terms with England and they are so afraid of the Germans that I think this policy will be kept up in spite of their indignation at the excessive benefits to England in the treaty, though the effect of this has been to relax the censorship a little and some plain speaking has appeared; they all know the case for Ireland now and most are sympathetic; but I think their caution will be stronger than their sympathy. The only way to do effective propaganda is to get personal introductions to well-known and influential people and to get French writers interested in this way, for a paper will publish from a recognised correspondent a great deal that we would never get in otherwise; the four principal news agencies refuse to put in our news and refuse to have a contract with us; it might be possible to get this done with a news agency after peace is signed if we could get an influential introduction, but even then the terms would probably be outrageous, so that really the only publicity you can count on here is what you can get through personally friendly writers and journalists; this is where Mrs Chartres has been useful.² For the same reason I am personally very glad that Childers is coming here, assuming he has useful acquaintances in Paris; I tried to make it very clear to him in a letter that it would be useless for him to come otherwise. Under these circumstances, so far as political work is concerned, it will not be worth your while to keep both O'Ceallaigh and me here much longer; one of us would do until you appoint a permanent consul to look after trade interests as well as political matters; neither of us would fill that bill. I understand Boyd is at Copenhagen; if you would think of him for the post, we could write him on your instructions from here probably more easily than you can direct from Dublin, but if he is in the British employ I suppose he would not come unless the terms tempted him. Another reason for curtailing expenses here now is that it is obvious that the only real help will be American and that that is going to be so forcible that it is hardly necessary to look to the French from whom we shall certainly get no effective help, official or unofficial, in present circumstances nor even if Caillaux and the Socialists come into power. I submit the view that subject to seeing a few more people here whom we have put off seeing till the American delegates leave us the work of this delegation is nearly done and that one of us might well be recalled a month or so hence. I am exceedingly anxious to get home myself, where I think I could do more profitable work for the Republic, and O'C is also anxious to get back soon; so let us have your instructions as soon as you have decided. In the meantime it is a great advantage to us to have the secretarial help that you have provided.

I enclose three prints of the report on atrocities of the Am.[erican] Delegates.³