Memorandum by Joseph P. Walshe regarding the United States
attitude to asylum for war criminals

Mr. David Gray, who is in bed with a cold, telephoned me today and said his Government had some remarks to make about our reply to the American request for assurance in relation to war criminals. As he was unlikely to be up for a few days, he said, he would send Mr. Brown to see me.¹

Mr. Brown told me that his Minister has been instructed to make certain observations to the Government concerning the recent request for assurances. These observations did not constitute a formal reply. They were not to be framed as an Aide-mémoire and were not intended for publication. He then repeated from memory the four following points:-

'1. The American Government fails to find in the Irish reply the assurances they requested.

2. The American Government is at a loss to understand how the Irish Government can feel that justice, charity, honour and the interest of the nation could require the admission of Axis war criminals.

3. The American Government had thought that the Irish Government would consider Axis war criminals as undesirable aliens whose admission to Ireland would be contrary to her own interests.

4. The American Government had hoped that the Irish Government, representing a sovereign State, would, in the exercise of her sovereignty, unequivocably co-operate with the United Nations by proclaiming denial of asylum to Axis war criminals, and that such a course would be welcomed by the United Nations.'

I wrote down those points textually as they were given to me. I then had them typed and I handed a copy to Mr. Brown which he examined and passed as being the precise terms of his message.