Handwritten letter from Francis T. Cremins to Seán Murphy (Vichy)

I have to thank you for your minute of 13th January, 1941 (P.2/112 / P.33/14)¹ relative to the case of Miss Joyce. I presume that you have since learned that Mr. James Joyce died on the night of the 12th January after a couple of days illness. I do not know if Mrs. Joyce, or his son, will now pursue the question of getting Miss Joyce out of France, but if any further approach to me is made, I will inform them as you suggest, that they should continue to address themselves in the matter to you. That was in fact his intention, as he told me, when I spoke to him on the telephone after hearing from Mr. Warnock, that he had received the necessary forms from you. He said that he would if necessary raise the matter of the Irish passport if efforts which were being made by someone in the American Embassy in Berlin failed to produce results.

I see now that I should have sent on his request to you. He had explained to me all that you had done for him, expressing his gratitude for it in unmeasured terms, and had informed me that you had secured the permission in August which was only cancelled in Nov. before he was in a position to avail himself of it, the delay on his part being due to delay in obtaining the necessary entry permit for Switzerland. He enclosed me a note giving all the details regarding his daughter and asked me to send it to our Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin, as he thought that that would help the efforts which were being made. It was a useless move as our Chargé d'Affaires could not take any action, but that did not occur to me at that time. I took it that the matter was simply at a new stage.

In view of what Mr. Warnock said, I have raised the question with the Dept. as to whether I have authority to supply Irish passports in lieu of British ones without reference to the Dept., as I have now several such applications from Irish persons in Switzerland, one of whom states that she may have to return to France. For their information, I gave the Dept. a brief account of the Miss Joyce case (as it was that which raised the issue in my mind) in explaining how I had been in touch with Mr. Joyce.² They wired to me for details regarding his death. These latter I gave in a telegram, followed by a minute.

I note in particular the last paragraph of your minute. If Mrs. Joyce, or Mr. Joyce, Jnr., writes to me in the matter I will pass on the communication at once to you and inform them that I have done so.

Mr. Joyce had informed me also that the Swiss entry permit would expire on the 31st December, but that he had no doubt that he would be able to secure an extension.