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

Taoiseach.
I attach an attempt at a note to the United States Government concerning the establishment of an American base in the Six Counties.¹ There are very strong reasons for sending a note urgently. So far, our most powerful weapons against the State Department have been your public statements and your notes to the State Department, and, of course, the mission you entrusted to Mr. Aiken. They have all proved very effective, and, if you had not taken those steps, we should undoubtedly have been subjected to a great deal more bullying. Your decision to send a note now concerning the Six Counties affair is even more vital. If we let Roosevelt get away with the idea that he can trample on our rights and aspirations by taking this step without a strong protest from you, he would most certainly follow it up by other steps more injurious still to our neutrality and perhaps to our future sovereignty. Salazar's note on alleged American intentions about the Azores and Cape Verde Islands has proved effective so far. In any case, a protest, once delivered, can always be published, and the Americans are very sensitive to accusations of ignoring the rights of small peoples.

I think also some answer from you to David Gray's accusations and insinuations is urgently required. He will know that I have given you his questions and answers,² and, if no answer at all is given to him, he will assume that his frontal attack has been a success. There is a certain advantage in letting me send him a reply because of the element of irresponsible truthfulness which I can put into it, and he may have sufficient shame to acknowledge that his presence here is unwelcome and is doing no good to either country.