Dearg code telegram from Robert Brennan to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(No. 63) (Confidential)

I had a long and very frank talk with Hickerson and Stewart who is in charge of Irish desk. They agreed I should send you a message on the following lines. I asked point blank would it mean invasion if reply were in the negative. They both assured me that there was no such intention and there were no plans for invasion. They said if the question were asked of the government that would be the reply and that the President's undertaking of February 26, 1942, still stood.¹ The military would be aware an invasion would merely produce a second front in an utterly unexpected quarter. The note was intended solely to warn you that if you refused the request, on you would be the responsibility in case any leak should be traced to Ireland. The punishment would be, not invasion or any other measures but the angry curses of millions of American mothers, many of them Irish. They have no specific instance of any leak in last two years, but they are not sure there is not and they do not believe you can be sure.