Letter from Frederick H. Boland to Colonel Dan Bryan (Dublin)
(Secret)

Dear Dan,
I have been considering the list of naturalised Germans which you sent me with your letter of the 17th May.¹

There is nothing to be gained by withholding the names from the British authorities. Presumably they have been, or will be, published in 'Iris Oifigiuil'. What we are rather doubtful about is the classification of the people concerned in the column 'Category and Remarks'. Whatever may have been done during the war, it is very invidious to designate people nowadays as 'conforming to the Nazi régime, taking part in German Colony's activities or believed to be pro-Nazi'. In most cases, the description has probably ceased to be true.

Would you consider either dropping the last column entirely or, alternatively, making a new classification divided up into:-

• Refugees
• Jews
• Other Germans known to have been opposed to the policy of the German Reich or to have abstained from pro-German activities
• Others

This revised classification is only a hasty suggestion, but something on these lines would give a truer and, from our point of view, a more tactful picture.