Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Michael MacWhite (Rome)
(Secret and Personal)

My dear Michael,
I was very glad to get your several letters after such a long interval, but I was very sorry to hear that your health was none too good. You must have had a very distressing time in Rome, and the whole atmosphere of the country must now be exceedingly depressing. I am looking forward to seeing you and Paula¹ when you come back at the beginning of June, and to hearing all the adventures of these terrible years. Be sure to do so, if you feel you really ought to come home before June. Health is our greatest treasure, and you would be very unwise to risk weakening yourself further before you began recuperation here.nI was sorry to hear that you were rather inclined to leave the service at the end of this year, and I hope very much that, when you have had a few weeks at home, you will take a different view of things. Even here, where we have had no privations to suffer, most of us feel not only overtired, but depressed and chesty, from the very damp winters (and summers) of the last four years. I am personally hoping for a long sojourn in a dry and sunny climate to get back some vigour and energy, so as to face the rest of the course which I have to run. Notwithstanding all your difficulties and the long absence from Eoin,² which must make you both feel very sad, you have every reason for being supremely happy about him. He is a wonderful boy, has done most brilliantly at his work, and I understand is doing equally brilliantly in the present stag uunder Professor Childe.³ Before he went away, he was very anxious that his holiday and yours should coincide, and I am quite sure he will not find much difficulty in returning here at the beginning of your holiday.

Things are not exciting here in Ireland. Neutrality has its difficulties and its obligations, and there is plenty to do. Nevertheless, one feels war-weary, and one longs for more constructive and permanent work. I expect we shall make a considerable increase in the number of our posts abroad in the early years after the war. Australia and New Zealand will be the first, followed by Sweden the Argentine and Czechoslovakia. I wonder when we shall have relations with Soviet Russia? They have a habit of sending an enormous staff to their legations. You have heard, no doubt, that the Soviet Legation in Australia has 200 officials. The American scene is more hopeful. The people there, notwithstanding a great deal of nasty propaganda against us, have not fundamentally changed. The Irish especially have realised that this small country, exhausted by wars and prolonged occupation, had too recently begun its life as a separate state to run the risk of joining in a great war. The Irish also know from our history that the occupation of this country by Allied forces (an inevitable concomitant of our going into the war) might be of indefinite duration and, after it all, one wonders whether the people would have the heart to start out once more to rebuild the nation.

Everybody is thinking of the immediately post-war world with a certain heaviness of heart. We are passing from the measurable problem to the immeasurable problem. There will be no balance of power in Europe as such, and unless America and Britain, in spite of all their minor tiffs, link up with each other in the closest friendship and with the older nations of western Europe, including ourselves, there will be little hope left for either Christianity or western European civilisation. It will be interesting to those who come after us to see whether that civilisation is strong enough to work its way backwards across Europe and into Asia, or whether it must finally yield to the new forces from the east. For the early stages of the new developments, you have an interesting watching-post in Rome, and I am afraid that from your reports one can only conclude that we must be prepared for the worst.

I hope, notwithstanding the hopeless atmosphere of Rome and the bad food conditions, you will be able to get some benefit from the lovely spring weather which never seems to change in Rome. But do remember that your first consideration is your health, and you should take your holiday at the first moment you feel you ought to do so. We can always make do as far as the office is concerned, especially in the present abnormal situation.