Memorandum from Frank Gallagher to Eamon de Valera
and Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)

Suggestions re News Bulletin for Shortwave transmission in Morse

1. The value of such transmissions depends on up-to-date contents. As News that would be internationally interesting would not justify anything like a long bulletin (there would hardly be three minutes of such news a day), it might be best to have the transmission reduced to five minutes daily or to have it twice a week for ten or fifteen minutes.
2. Into such a transmission a good deal of disguised propaganda could be inserted in the form of quotation from leading articles, semi-official comment on home or foreign events and in times of crisis, statements by Ministers.
3. The bulletin should contain also, in particular, replies to U.S. mis-representation – our Minister in Washington would wire, say, what the 'New York Times' said and the answering comment would go out in the Bulletin within a few hours of the misstatement, if necessary.
4. A section of the Bulletin could be devoted to statements of fact in reply to whatever the current misrepresentation was as, for instance, that the Germany Legation has a staff of six, that no submarines can come to our shores without being observed, etc.
5. It should be an essential part of the scheme that our Legations and Consulates everywhere abroad notify beforehand as many newspapers and political people as possible of the hours of transmission and keep reminding them of it.
6. The Transmission could be kept semi-official by calling it a Newsagency.
7. If the right man could be found, such a feature as a military correspondent who would give an intelligent comment on the latest war news would help to establish the transmissions among intelligent listeners.
8. It would also help if External Affairs could now and then (as frequently as possible) give little bits of international news not generally known which would be published either as news or used as the basis of comment. This would give the transmissions a standing with listeners who themselves were well-informed and so help in getting accepted the purely Irish part of the transmissions.
9. It would be better to have no transmissions at all rather than anything immature or not completely informed and moderately stated.

10. A sample of what the Bulletin might contain is added:

    Dublin –

    It is stated officially today that the number of Irishmen who have now answered the call for recruits is just over the 170,000. This is in addition to the highly trained Standing Army, the Reserve and the Volunteer Force. Including the armed section of the Local Security Force it means that the Irish Government has now its military forces over 150,000 and in its Observer Patrols over 50,000 others. On a population basis this means that of the male population between the ages of 18 and 64 one in every four is in the Defence forces.

    Dublin –

    In connection with the reports published here of the Havana Conference, in which strong German populations in the South Americas were mentioned, it is stated that the total German population here is 326, of whom 170 are refugees and 134 women. The staffs of the Legations, including Consular officials, are: United States … 9 Great Britain … 9 Germany … 6 France … 6 Italy … 5