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

Taoiseach, Minister for External Affairs
Sir John Maffey called this morning at 11.30 to convey the following decision of his Government:-

It is proposed, for military reasons, that foreign diplomatic representatives will not be permitted to send or receive uncensored communications, and no member of the diplomatic staffs will be allowed to leave Great Britain.

The restrictions will apply not only to neutral Governments but also to Allied Governments, including the exiled Governments in London, and to the French Committee of Liberation. They will not apply to the United States or the U.S.S.R.

These restrictions will cease as soon as military operations have reached the stage where secrecy is no longer necessary, i.e., when the invasion has taken place.

It is contemplated that this notice will be issued to the Press on Monday evening for publication on Tuesday morning, 18th instant, and that the restrictions should be operative as from Tuesday, 18th instant.

I told Sir John Maffey that we should, of course, be obliged to maintain the principle of the immunity of our diplomatic bag, and the only way to maintain the principle in so far as the bag was concerned was not to send one at all. We should, therefore, be obliged to communicate with Dulanty through the ordinary post so that our correspondence with him would be taken out of the diplomatic category.

Maffey said that, in so far as he was concerned, he would be ready to help in every possible way. Where we had lengthy documents, such as requisitions, likely to be held up for a long time by the ordinary censorship, he would be very glad to put them in his bag.

Our situation is, of course, made much easier by the fact that the restrictions cover Allied as well as neutral Government communications.