Memorandum from Joseph P. Walshe to Eamon de Valera (Dublin)
'Position of the French Legation in Dublin – Arrival of de Gaulle's Emissary'

On Thursday, 15th June, M. de Laforcade and M. Lalouette¹ came to see me by arrangement. (Lalouette had arrived without any prior notice on Monday, 18th June, and, on the afternoon of that day, M. de Laforcade informed me of his arrival. On the following day (Tuesday), he came to see me, & showed me Lalouette's diplomatic passport which bore a British diplomatic visa given to him by the British Consul at Rabat. During that visit I had asked Laforcade to bring Lalouette to see me to the Department.)

When welcoming M. Lalouette to Ireland, I told him quite frankly that we had been very much surprised to hear of his arrival in this country without having been notified in any way by his authorities. I felt obliged to tell him that for two reasons, first of all because it put both him and the Department in a false position ab initio, and also because the manner of his coming seemed to indicate that the French Committee considered a diplomatic visa from a British official as a form of permission to come into this State in an official capacity. Nevertheless, I welcomed him and told him we were very glad to see him. We had no quarrel with any group of Frenchmen and our one desire with regard to France was to see her whole people united under one Government. If his coming to this country could help forward that object, we should be extremely glad and should give him every help in our power.

At the same time, I warned him that there should be no publicity concerning his arrival and that any move with regard to Cauvet Duhamel, the present Chargé d'Affaires, should be made only gradually and with great discretion. We did not want any quarrels between Frenchmen in Ireland. A French scandal in Dublin would not help his country. Indeed, in the present situation when everything relating to his Chief became a subject of world-wide publicity, any reference to a proposed modification in French representation in Dublin might have nasty repercussions.

I must say Lalouette took this extremely well. He is somewhat tough in appearance and manner, and looks (as do most followers of dictators) as if he would like to do the dictator in his own little sphere. He made a lame apology for the incorrectness of his procedure by ascribing it to some omission in his Department in Algiers, which at the present moment was extremely busy. He said that he would have to ask us to allow him to send Cauvet Duhamel to North Africa and to put an end to the equivocal situation in which Cauvet Duhamel was the Chargé d'Affaires of the Vichy Government and at the same time a loyal adherent of de Gaulle. His Government (as he called it) did not want to appear to tolerate this équivoque.

I replied that we were quite willing to see an end of the équivoque insofar as Cauvet was concerned, but there must be no publicity either about his (Lalouette's) arrival or about the departure of Cauvet. I also requested him not to circularise the diplomatic corps about his arrival or to do anything which went contrary to the policy of the Irish Government in regard to French representation here, viz., that the change of representation should take place imperceptibly, step by step with events on the Continent, to be completed only when the Vichy Government had come to an end and the French people had elected their new Government. I rejected absolutely a suggestion of M. de Laforcade that Lalouette should give an interview to the Press. Indeed, I told him that any attempt of the kind would meet with the grave displeasure of the Irish Government. I hoped very much that when M. Lalouette was here a short time he would appreciate the difficulties and adapt himself to the attitude of our Government.

I told M. Lalouette that we would treat him as the Secretary of the de facto Representative of the French Committee and would accordingly give him the usual diplomatic immunities.

I informed Norman Archer of the British Legation (in Maffey's absence) that Lalouette had come here on a British diplomatic visa given to him by the British Consul at Rabat, and I asked him to find out how a diplomatic visa had been granted for Ireland and in such extraordinary circumstances without giving us prior notice about it.

Mr. Archer seemed to be very much surprised. He felt sure it was through some awful mistake and he would make enquiries.

David Gray, the American Minister rang me up yesterday morning (Wednesday, 21st June), and informed me that he had had a request from Laforcade for an interview for the purpose of introducing to him his new Secretary, Lalouette, Gray seemed quite perturbed at this request and he told me it was a matter in which he would have to move with the greatest care, inasmuch as his Government had not recognised de Gaulle's Committee as the Provisional Government of France. He wanted to keep step with us in regard to the arrival of this young man.

I told him what our attitude had been, and I gave him the gist of my conversation with Laforcade and Lalouette, and I agreed with his suggestion that, if he received Lalouette without reservation, his action might be quoted in the Algiers Assembly as a form of recognition of the Provisional Government. I myself, as I told him, had warned Lalouette that, in no circumstances, was there to be any mention in the Assembly of the present position here.

Mr. Gray then said that he would write a friendly letter to Laforcade and make it clear that he was receiving Lalouette as the Assistant to the de facto representative of the French National Committee. He told me he would send me a copy of the letter (which duly arrived in the course of the afternoon and is attached to this file).

M. Lalouette came without stop from Port Lyauty.