Letter from Eamon de Valera to Stanley Baldwin (London)

Dear Prime Minister,¹

I shall be out of town for some days, and, as I regard the matter as being of fundamental importance, and from your point of view of some urgency, I desire to refer to the recent conversations between the Attorney General of the United Kingdom² and the High Commissioner of Saorstát Éireann concerning the proposal of the Government of the United Kingdom to introduce legislation providing, in certain events, for a Regency and for the performance of Royal Functions in the name and on behalf of the Sovereign.

The Government here have given careful consideration to the proposal of your Government and to the Memoranda and draft Bill handed by Sir Thomas Inskip to the High Commissioner on the instructions of the Cabinet Committee. I think I should inform you at once that we should be unable to agree to the enactment by the British Parliament of a law which might be thought to provide for the performance of any royal functions in respect of the internal or external affairs of Saorstát Éireann. As you are aware, the sole and exclusive right to enact any law in respect of Saorstát Éireann is vested in the Oireachtas.