Memorandum by the Department of External Affairs
'Co-operation with British Government'
(Secret)

1. Since the outbreak of war, the Irish Meteorological Service has continued to supply to the British Meteorological Service weather reports and meteorological data generally. These are not being supplied to any other country. They are of course extremely important as a basis for weather forecasts.
NOTE: – It should be borne in mind that the British Meteorological Service supplies us with weather forecasts, etc. which are important for the Army Air Corps and for the Commercial Air Service between Dublin and Manchester. There is therefore an element of reciprocity about the arrangement.

2. The necessary authorisation was given to the Air Ministry last Summer to establish the trans-Atlantic Air Service and no embarrassing restrictions were imposed.

3. There is also co-operation in the operation of the Broadcasting Service.

4. A system of petrol rationing was introduced in this country at the outbreak of war and has been maintained ever since. It is understood that New Zealand has a petrol rationing system in operation but that Australia, South Africa, and Canada have not. The United Kingdom has a petrol rationing scheme but the reduction in consumption for ordinary civilian purposes has been much more than offset by the increase in the consumption of the Defence Services so that the total United Kingdom consumption is very much greater than it was before the war. The total consumption in this country is very much less than it was before the war, and the saving is in effect a contribution to the requirements of the British Defence Services.

5. At the request of the United Kingdom Government we agreed to the transfer to the British Shipping Register of seven tankers which were registered in Dublin at the outbreak of war. Four of these would probably have been quite sufficient to import to this country all our requirements of petroleum products.

6. At the suggestion of the United Kingdom Government we agreed to a scheme of combined purchasing for sugar, wheat, maize, and animal feeding stuffs (other than cereals). These arrangements were designed to eliminate competition and to keep down prices. They are advantageous to both countries; but they are much more advantageous to Great Britain than they are to this country because of the magnitude of the saving effected by any reduction in price as a result of the elimination of competition; the British requirements of all these products are of course very much greater than ours; and they are relatively much greater in the case of sugar, wheat, etc. where we produce a much higher percentage of our own requirements than the United Kingdom does.

7. A similar arrangement was made, again at the suggestion of the United Kingdom Government, regarding the chartering of ships. This arrangement again was designed to eliminate competition and keep down freights but in practice it has brought us a rather painful experience.

8. The Irish Government have also imposed restrictions on the purchase of Foreign Exchange and have followed the same general principles as the British Government with a view to economising the available resources of Foreign Exchange. Newspapers for example have, at the instance of the Department of Supplies, reduced their consumption of newsprint to about one-half of the pre-war consumption.

9. It is understood that generally the British Government made provision for normal supplies to continental neutrals provided those countries did not allow re-export to belligerents. We have had since the beginning of the war rigid control of exports but we are in effect now finding ourselves blockaded more rigidly than any of the continental neutrals were since the war began.

10. We also co-operate with the British Government in their administration of their import restrictions. In the case of many commodities, imports are permitted only under licence from countries other than this: imports consigned from Éire are for the most part allowed without restriction. If we have any reason to think that any of the commodities on the prohibited list are being imported here from other countries and then re-exported to Great Britain, in abuse of the British restrictions, we prohibit exports from this country of such commodities. But it must be recognised that the exclusion of this country from the general prohibition represents a very substantial advantage and convenience to our exporters.