Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(14/23) (Most Secret)

I have now seen Mgr. Tardini several times. His manner is notoriously abrupt and he brings you to the point with rather staggering suddenness. Nevertheless, he strikes you as being absolutely sincere. He is a man of great force of character and very alert intelligence, two qualities which have brought him to the highest place in the Secretariat of State, notwithstanding his very un-Italian approach. I have heard that he is very pro-Irish, extremely Italian in political outlook, and very anti 'the principal Mediterranean Power'. My first contacts with him seem, so far, to confirm this judgment. Much more than Mgr. Montini, he realises the enormous role which American Catholics are about to play in the new era. Like the Holy Father himself and Mgr. Montini, he has learned a great deal from the newly-created Cardinals about Irish influence in the American Church, and he did not hesitate to formulate his 'strong desire' that Ireland should take a more prominent and a more positive part in the consolidation of Catholicism in the English-speaking Catholic world. This unmistakable attitude of the Holy See marks an immense change since my first serious contacts with the Vatican in 1929.

Mgr. Tardini told me that, in his view, our representation in Rome needed a great deal of building up. He did not hesitate to express the view that he found it very difficult to understand what little importance we had apparently hitherto attached to our representation to the Holy See. It was naturally a difficult matter for me to encourage detailed discussions on this subject, they might so easily degenerate into animadversions on previous Irish representatives to the Holy See. Without any request on my part, he gave me the names of certain proprietors of villas (for sale) which, in his judgment, would be suitable as a locale for this mission, and he told me that the Holy See would do everything possible to help us to establish ourselves. Mgr. Tardini's interest in this matter was purely 'proprio motu' and I had not, at any stage, got to the point of casual conversation with him, and I should not have ventured to mention what I would have considered a matter of detail. It is an interesting illustration of the close interest which the Holy See apparently wishes to take in our representation here. No doubt, it is Mgr. Tardini who had informed the Holy Father about the need for a new residence for the mission.

Mgr. Tardini's attitude towards the Polish Ambassador¹ exemplifies his type of mind. He allows the Polish Ambassador to regard himself as dean of the Diplomatic Corps, but, on the other hand, he is making sure that the other members of the Diplomatic Corps do not treat him as such. His reason for this attitude, he explained to me, was, that the Polish Government in London had no longer the support of the Polish people at home, because they were beginning to regard the London Ministers as the source of their trouble. He said that democracy had not existed in the 'between-the-wars-years', and these men had therefore no real hold on the people. The Holy See were allowing the Polish representation to die an easy death, but they had no intention whatever of establishing relations with the Warsaw Government, which was for them, a mere offshoot of Russia. Like the Holy Father, Mgr. Tardini expressed the hope that we should not recognise the Warsaw Government until Russian influence had ceased to exist there.

Though it was somewhat difficult to become accustomed to Mgr. Tardini's abrupt and extremely vigorous personality, I am very glad indeed to be able to give my opinion that my relations with him are likely to become extremely cordial.