Letter from Colonel Dan Bryan to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(G2/0257) (Secret)

This raises some interesting questions, e.g.

1. Did Mr. Kerney make an arrangement with Eilis Ryan to send him letters using a decoy name 'Evelyn' which he would transmit to Ryan?
2. Does Mr. Kerney know Ryan's present address? (Note: On the top righthand corner of the first page is the following by way of a postscript 'Remember me to the Muls when you see them'. If the 'Muls' mean Clissmann (Mulcahy) it would seem as if this letter was intended to go direct to Ryan but this is not necessarily the only conclusion to be drawn from that message).
3. The letter acknowledged by Eilis Ryan on the 7th Sept. was stated to have been dated the 13th August. I have seen letters that have arrived from the Continent within from three weeks to a month from the date of posting. In this instance however and on the assumption that the letter of the 13^th August was from Frank Ryan, it would appear to have come with remarkable dispatch. It was not seen in Postal Censorship and I have been wondering if, by any chance, it could have come in the bag from Madrid and have been passed out in your absence. Alternatively it might have been brought by a member of the crew of one of our ships sailing from Lisbon and smuggled ashore. The only other explanation that I can think of at the moment is that it could have been sent to a covering address and consequently not associated with the Ryans. I have now established beyond doubt that Clissmann is an Intelligence Officer in the German Army (Fitzsimons has identified him from a photograph as being one of the persons who interviewed him). I have an idea that I saw on some document in your office a reference to Clissmann having been in Madrid at some time and if my recollection is correct I would like to see the relevant context.