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

Taoiseach, Minister for External Affairs.
The British Government are being continually pressed to supply us with adequate arms and munitions.

2. For some time now the High Commissioner has been concentrating on equipment for Rynanna.¹

3. Sir John Maffey told me a fortnight ago that the arms question 'was all right', adding that I probably had heard that Crawford had so informed our military people. The promise to General McKenna now turns out to be something exceedingly vague, and the state of affairs seems to be just as bad as ever. The only hope given to us was in the statement of Sir John Maffey after his last visit to London that the Prime Minister's attitude had undergone a change for the better² and that we should get arms when there were any to spare.

4. I attach a copy of the 'Yorkshire Post' of 22nd November, which has a leader warning us to prepare our own defences, and blandly assuming that the British have no responsibility for our lack of arms. It will be remembered that the 'Yorkshire Post' belongs to Anthony Eden's father-in-law.³ One of the Dominions Office officials told Belton that this article represented exactly the views held by the staff in that Office.