Confidential report from Michael MacWhite to Joseph P. Walshe
(It/455/39)¹ (Copy)

During the past fourteen days, since the international situation became tense, this Legation has been kept extremely busy. The heads of Irish and other colleges having Irish students or professors, priests, nuns and other Irish citizens in numbers have come to inquire about their situation in the case of a European war, if they should go or stay and if they remained how things would work out. All these people insist on seeing me or speaking to me over the telephone. Calls have been received from places as far apart as Stresa, Milan, Siena, Viareggio, Florence, Turin, etc. Others have written for advice and others again have come to exchange their English passports for Irish ones. For this purpose a woman travelled two days ago from Genoa, and yesterday I had two persons from Florence for the same purpose. The representatives of colleges and a number of priests either telephone or make personal daily calls with the result that I am beginning to suffer from the strain.

It seems that there are in Italy about four or five hundred Irish citizens all of whom depend on this Legation for advice and protection. To meet their demands in a thorough manner during the past fortnight would require the aid of two competent Secretaries of Legation. My son was able to help materially before his departure, my wife also lends a hand and Signora Benedetti is fully occupied. The making out of passports which has to be done by me is a most tedious business. As all my time is thus taken up with Consular work it is quite impossible for me to meet my colleagues or to glean any particular information on international matters. In fact I had only a moment last night to study the new code which seems very complicated and because of the advance in the slide for each word is liable to numerous errors in coding particularly when one is working under the pressure that happens to be my lot at present.