Letter from Frederick H. Boland to William Warnock (Berlin)
(Copy)

Dear Warnock,

I hope that this letter will reach you safely. We haven't come to any definite conclusion here as to how we are going to communicate with you in future, and we shall be glad to receive any observations on the matter which you have to make. You may like to talk to the authorities in Berlin about it. In the meantime, perhaps you would be good enough to send your reports and official correspondence to the Minister at the Holy See for transmission here in his bag.

I hope you received the bank drafts for $5,000 which we sent you. Please acknowledge their receipt when you are writing.

I should be glad if when you are writing you would give us full particulars of the German censorship regulations in so far as they would affect your official correspondence with the Minister for the Holy See, or with any of our other missions in Europe with whom we might ask you to communicate officially. If there are any Irish nationals left in Germany we should be glad if you would keep in as close touch with them as possible, and let us know when you are writing how they are etc., so that we may be able to answer any enquiries we may get from their relatives and friends.

I am sending you with this letter an official minute with regard to an Order made here obliging all Irish ships to fly only the Irish flag.¹ We should be glad if you would bring the Order at once to the notice of the German authorities and send us through Macaulay any observations they may have to make about it.

I presume that Dr. Mahr,² the Director of the National Gallery, is still in Germany. You might let us know what, precisely, he intends to do. I should, perhaps, tell you that a large number of German nationals normally resident here are trying to get back to their own country, and in our own interest, as well as theirs, we are doing our best to help them.

I hope you are keeping well and not finding the isolation too depressing. Once we get a regular system of communication established however, we will be able to keep in constant touch with you.

Yours sincerely,