Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to William J.B. Macaulay (Rome)
(Confidential) (27/122)

On the 14th October, the Committee set up at Geneva to co-ordinate the action of members of the League in applying against Italy the sanctions provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 16 of the Covenant, adopted a proposal of which the text is attached to this minute.¹ This proposal deals with financial sanctions, and it is intended, in pursuance of our obligations, to take at an early date the measures necessary to put this proposal into effect so far as Saorstát Éireann is concerned.

When this proposal was submitted to the Co-ordination Committee, the Minister declined to vote for it unless it were made clear that the measures contemplated would not affect in any way the transfer of funds from abroad to, and the raising of loans abroad by religious bodies in Rome situated outside the limits of the Vatican State. The measures adopted could not, of course, in any circumstances, apply to the Vatican State.

The minutes of the meeting at which the Minister raised this point are enclosed.² You will see that the Chairman of the Committee accepted the Minister's point and that the proposal was adopted by the Committee subject to the express understanding that the contemplated measures would not refer to humanitarian organisations, which for this purpose would be deemed to include religious institutions. This position was made clear in the communiqué No. 7571 issued by the League Secretariat to the Press after the meeting.

Lest there should be any misunderstanding as to the exact scope of the measures adopted by the Committee, it should be pointed out that, even without the reservations made by the President and accepted by the Committee, the measures in question have no application to the transfer to Italy of existing funds or of funds arising in the future otherwise than by way of public loans, banking credits, issues of shares or other credit operations.