Dearg code telegram from Joseph P. Walshe to Robert Brennan (Washington)
(No. 254)

Your 265.¹ You need not take any step either for or against publication. No doubt you have given material for private reply to Congressman. Letter is rehash of old accusations. No European neutral has severed relations. For them it would be equivalent to declaration of war as State Department well knows. Turkey is special case. It could be argued equally well that America's two years' delay in going into war must have caused death of thousands of Allied soldiers. It is bad augury for future that State Department should attempt to dictate vital policy of peace and war to small nations and to impose on them code which they refuse to accept for themselves.

Why does State Department insist on calling us Irish Free State? Even British would not go so far as to say that unity of Ireland was purely British affair. That principle, if generally applied, would mean end of small nations all of which run risk of losing bits of their territory through greed of big neighbours. If it is lawful and moral for big States to keep portion of neighbours' territory for strategic or commercial reasons, war waged against Germany loses its justification. Unless injustices such as partition are remedied, world will become a thieves' kitchen for big Powers.