Extract from a letter from John J. Hearne to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(14/397)

Dominion Day, 1944. Conversations at Functions held in Mr. Fraser's honour

[matter omitted]

The aide in waiting to the Governor General,¹ Major Clayton came to me after dinner and said 'His Excellency wants particularly to have a word with you'. When we came to him, the Governor General started at once to speak of the American Note of the 21st February² and the Taoiseach's reply.³ He condemned the sending of the American Note in the roundest terms. 'A perfectly stupid business', he called it. 'The Americans know nothing. Their idea of sending a formal Note to Dublin was silly. That was not at all the way to approach Mr. de Valera about a matter of that kind. It was a case for a talk with your people. Then the publication of the Notes was another mistake. These are not the relations that should exist between you. We were all very worried about it. I am very glad it's all over now, very glad indeed. It was most upsetting.'

The Governor General was obviously speaking to a brief.

He referred to the Irish general election and said that Mr. de Valera had had a splendid victory.⁴ He asked what I thought was the real reason for the Government's success. I said that the people wanted to make it clear that they were behind their Government and especially their Prime Minister. They felt that the Government should have a solid majority so that its authority at home and abroad would be unquestioned. 'Our people, Sir, as you know', I added, 'have a quick sense of political issues. Mr. de Valera expressed the simple truth when he stated in his reply to the American Note that Anglo Irish relations had improved to the extent to which Great Britain had ceased to interfere in Irish affairs. Our people weren't going to tolerate Mr. Roosevelt, head of a democratic country, telling them what they must or must not do in a grave emergency. The vote in the election, whatever the domestic questions involved, was the measure of the people's resentment against American interference.

'These people in Washington have a lot to learn', His Excellency said. 'They know nothing', he repeated. (He implied, I imagine, that they weren't equal to the job of handling Ireland: that, as witness this conversation, was the business of the British). 'Well, I'm so glad it's all blown over. Bit anxious for a while, you know. These people may cause us all trouble later on' (this, as if the Governor General meant that we must stick together).