Letter from Frederick H. Boland to Michael MacWhite (Rome)
(227/23) (Copy)

With reference to your minute It/487/39 of the 5th October, the Minister has decided, after due consideration, that the establishment of a Slovak Consulate here would not be opportune in present circumstances.¹

If you can avoid giving the Slovak Minister a definite reply to his enquiry it would be preferable to do so. If the giving of a definite reply is unavoidable, the Slovak Minister² may be informed in the sense of the foregoing paragraph. It is preferable not to give the Slovak Minister any reasons for the decision, but if you feel obliged to do so you may tell him that the view was taken that the formal recognition of Slovakia, and the establishment of a Slovak Consulate here would, having regard to the circumstances of the present conflict and the avowed aims of the belligerents, be hardly consistent with this country's attitude of strict neutrality.

I should, perhaps, add, for your information, that the Slovak Minister to Germany³ approached our Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin about this matter on the 19th September. The Chargé d'Affaires is being sent a copy of Mr. Zvrskovec's letter to you and of this minute.