Sean T O'Ceallaigh to George Gavan Duffy (Dublin)

A Chara,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter No. S.24 dated 24th January, also the personal note of same date which accompanied same.¹

I note what you say about Mr Joseph Walsh[e], and you may expect him to report to you as requested on Monday morning Feb. 6th. I have asked him to go to the Mansion House as I do not know your office address.

With regard to this matter, I would like to call your attention to the fact that the terms of your letter raise a point of procedure with regard to appointments to staffs such as mine which I think should be discussed and settled now so as to avoid future misunderstandings.

It will probably be within your knowledge that the staffs of the separate delegations abroad were appointed and controlled by the heads of each delegation at least I understand this to have been the case, and certainly so far as Paris is concerned, I from the beginning claimed the right to nominate and control the staff under me. This right being always accorded by the late Government. You will readily see that your 'seconding', as you describe it, of Mr Joseph Walsh[e] to Dublin is an interference with the previous practice, and I respectfully suggest that before any new procedure was adopted, it would have been well to consult the heads of the Foreign Delegations.

I understand of course that in this case there was hardly time for such a consultation, therefore, I am not myself making any protest in the matter. Unwilling as I am to lose the valued services of Mr Joseph Walsh[e], I realise the position you are placed in, and though owing to other circumstances his being taken away means serious personal inconvenience, I am satisfied to let him go. Mr Osmond Grattan Esmonde being the next in seniority, on the Diplomatic Staff, I have asked him and he has consented to take Mr Joseph Walshe's place as first secretary.

Mr Sean Murphy, now on the staff of Mr Hughes-Kelly, Honorary Secretary of the World Congress of the Irish Race, has agreed to join the staff of the Mission as second secretary, as soon as ever Mr Kelly can release him from his present engagements.

I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated January 26th² re copies of Irish Bulletin. I am having this matter looked into and will send you any spare copies we have with the least possible delay.

I have also to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 25th January and No. 1/1922 with which letter is enclosed one copy each of F.O. Memorandums No. 1 and No. 2/1922.³

You say in the letter that you enclose three further copies of memorandum No. 1 for the diplomatic members of the staff, these copies I did not receive.

I wish also to acknowledge your letter dated 26th Jan. with reference to the coming Ard-Fheis, and enclosing copy of a letter signed by Mr H. Boland and myself. This letter I will reply to in a day or two.

I have asked the bearer of this letter to deliver the following to you: £385 cash, a cheque for £230 from Mr Little, and one letter from Mr Egan, Chile, and one account from Mr. P.J. Little, all of which I received yesterday from R. Brennan.