Memorandum by Frederick H. Boland on aspects of British-Irish relations

At his invitation, I lunched with Mr. Archer yesterday on his return from London, and in the course of conversation he gave me the following information with regard to the results of his talks:-

1. Attitude of British Departments.
He found Departments in London tired and rushed. Their attitude as regards anything having to do with Ireland was: 'Is this really urgent? There are countries on the Continent of Europe on the point of foundering. Can't Ireland wait a bit?'

2. Unemployment Insurance of Irish Workers in Britain.
He didn't get anything definite on this. It was one of the things which he couldn't get Departments in London to regard as urgent. They said that most Irish workers in Britain were being re-employed as quickly as they are paid off and that as yet very few Irish workers were returning to Ireland. Mr. Archer said the Departments in London didn't admit that there was anything very anomalous in the present situation. Very few countries had reciprocal arrangements as regards unemployment insurance and they would like to know whether Ireland had such agreements with any countries other than Great Britain. I reminded Mr. Archer that an anomaly about the present position, which did not normally exist in the case of other countries, was that the payment of benefit was dependent upon residence and continued residence in England was not a matter of the workers' own volition. The Irish worker in Britain was conditionally landed for six months at a time and could be ordered to leave at any moment. Mr. Archer considered this point and said that he didn't want to give the impression that nothing would be done. It was just that it was hard to get Departments in London down to the question at the moment.

3. Ships.
He had spoken to Sir Gilmour Jenkins about the two Canadian ships. Jenkins had not held out much hope that the Pool would sanction the sale of the two ships to us, but thought that it might be possible to meet our requirements by the grant of 'tonnage assistance' out of the Pool. This would save foreign exchange and be better business from our own point of view, in view of the present abnormal price of tonnage. Jenkins said that a matter for consideration was whether our application for 'tonnage assistance' to the Pool should be made direct or through him. It was a question of knowing the lines on which USA went in allocating tonnage. He proposed to discuss these points with Mr. Leydon on the telephone early this week.

Mr. Archer said he had confirmed that the object behind the rule requiring our vessels on the Lisbon route to call at a British port was a security one. It wasn't so much the fact that we still had a Japanese Representative here as that Security feared that there were wanted people in the Iberian Peninsula who would try to get to Ireland on an Irish boat if they could.

4. Welfare of Irish Citizens in Germany.
Mr. Archer said that his Office had been authorised to accept from us enquiries with regard to the welfare of Irish people anywhere in the western zone of Germany. The western zone of Germany meant any part of Germany not under Russian occupation. If we would send him a list of the persons concerned, it would be possible to get news of them within a relatively short space of time.

5. He had heard it said that fertilisers were going to be a serious world shortage. He couldn't say whether this applied to any particular class of fertilisers or to fertilisers generally.

6. Foreign Exchange.
He had heard some talk about our position as regards foreign exchange. The foreign exchange position generally was very tight, particularly in respect of dollars, but there was no despondency as regards the ultimate strength of the sterling block. The people in London seemed to feel that the arrangement which had operated during the war years had worked pretty satisfactorily and the general idea was that we should go on gently on the same basis for the time being. It was realised that at some not too far distant date it would be necessary to discuss arrangements for the future, and he got the suggestion that, from London's point of view, whatever arrangements were made should be quite informal and should be negotiated on the 'official' level, that is to say, between the officials concerned on either side.

7. British Exports.
British manufacturers of goods freed from export controls were being given raw materials on the basis that so much per cent of the output would be exported and so much per cent retained for home consumption. The Board of Trade had some fear that under the system being operated, the situation might arise in which the Irish market would be freely supplied with British manufactured goods at a time when the goods in question were scarce or unobtainable in Britain. He had gathered that it was the intention on the other side to take this matter up with the Department of Industry & Commerce, with a view to concerted action to prevent this situation arising.

8. Extension of Air Service to Croydon.
Mr. Archer said there was no decision yet on this point. The D.O. intended to ask Lord Cranborne to speak to Lord Swinton¹ as soon as he got back from San Francisco. At the Conference he had attended, one of the Air officials had said that he doubted whether a De H[avilland] 'plane could fly non-stop from Collinstown to Croydon fully loaded. I told Mr. Archer that the D.H. 'plane flew direct from Baldonnel to Croydon before the war.

9. Tea.
Mr. Archer said he had made a strong case about our tea supplies. He had used the argument that unless our supplies were increased, the disparity between the rations in the two countries would bear an appearance of political discrimination, particularly now that the British ration had been increased. He got the suggestion that the increase in the British ration was not unconnected with the Election. This was another matter which would require a push from Lord Cranborne when he got back to London, but the general impression he got was that something would be done reasonably soon.

10. International Economic Controls.
Mr. Archer said that there was a good deal of discussion going on in London about the future of the international economic machinery which had been set up during the war. He gathered that 'the whole machinery was going to be taken to pieces and put together again to fit the circumstances of the post-war situation.' Navicerts and similar controls would be retained in respect of commodities in short world supply, and also in respect of important raw materials where there was a danger of unorganised buying, bidding up prices to unreasonable levels.

11. Successor to Mr. Craig.²
Mr. Allen, of the Dominions Office, will take up duty in Dublin on the 15^th July in place of Mr. Craig. Mr. Allen was being succeeded in the Dominions Office by a Mr. Brock who is being released from the British Armed Forces for the purpose.

12. British Permit Office in Dublin.
He had spoken strongly to the Home Office about the scandalous organisation of the British Permit Office here. There had been several interdepartmental conferences on the point, which arrived at a tentative scheme under which Mr. Toms' Office would give Irish workers going to Britain their visa at the same time as their Ministry of Labour endorsement, thereby relieving the Permit Office of this type of case entirely. A Home Office official was coming over to inspect the Permit Office with a view to seeing how the existing regulations and procedures could be simplified, so as to speed up the work and give travellers a better service. Mr. Archer asked me to regard this information as particularly confidential for the moment, because he had not yet told Mr. Savage the result of his discussions.