Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to John W. Dulanty (London)
(Copy)

The Minister wishes you to make an early appointment with Sir Thomas Inskip¹ for the purpose of informing him that as a matter of courtesy the Minister for External Affairs wishes to let him know that he is considering a change in the existing form of the Irish passport. The request page would read as follows:

'I, the undersigned, Minister for External Affairs of Ireland, hereby request all whom it may concern to permit safely and freely to pass, and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection to ............................ a citizen of Ireland.

Given under my Hand and Seal at Dublin.'

The first page of the passport would carry simply the description of the bearer with the heading 'Passport', and underneath 'Ireland'.

The model being followed generally is the United States passport, a copy of which is attached.

Sir Thomas Inskip will agree that the association of the States of the Commonwealth is bound as time goes on to depend less and less on the use of forms and symbols and more and more on the real advantages, social and economic, which the individual States may derive from it. These forms and symbols have very little binding force in themselves. They may even have the opposite effect, and in the case of Ireland they do definitely create antagonisms and discontent which tend to make isolation from the Commonwealth group a desirable aim of all Nationalists. Ireland is the only member of the association in which the form of the Request Page of the passport is opposed to the will of the majority of the people, and the people do not understand why they should have to accept such a humiliating position. It is not necessary to recall that the King in Ireland is ineradicably associated in the minds of our generation with domination and ascendancy. The proclamations and the laws (down to the year 1921) intended to suppress the aspirations of the Irish people were issued in his name, and the continued use of it in the passport can have no other result than to perpetuate bitter memories between the two countries. The Irish Government, in proposing to eliminate it from the Request Page of the passport, feel sure they are taking a step which is not only in accordance with the will of the Irish people, but which will also remove another obstacle in the way of friendly relations with England.

In relation to the whole position of the passport, you should have in mind that originally the request was issued by the Governor-General in the name of the King and that the description 'British Commonwealth of Nations' did not appear. We had refused to describe our citizens as British subjects, and the Dominions Office thereupon succeeded in getting instructions issued to all British consular and diplomatic posts refusing their services to holders of Irish passports. Such persons, however, could be granted facilities if they surrendered their Irish passport and accepted instead a British passport on which they were described as British subjects. In 1929 we adopted the British form for the Request Page, and we are still the only member of the association except Great Britain in which the request is made by the Minister for External Affairs. We inserted the description 'British Commonwealth of Nations' on the first page and used 'Citizen of the Irish Free State' to describe our nationals. The British, on their side, cancelled the instruction. You will note that the chief point in relation to the new form of the passport is that the name of the King is being omitted from the Request Page and the description 'British Commonwealth of Nations' from the first page. The adoption of the new form follows the Government's general policy of removing from the relations between the two countries anything which might constitute an obstacle to co-operation and friendship.

You will remember that when the Duke of Devonshire was passing through Dublin on Tuesday, 31st January, the Minister spoke to him at length about this matter. Perhaps you should begin by asking him whether he has communicated the Minister's intentions to Sir Thomas Inskip.