Letter from Éamon de Valera to David Gray (Dublin)

Excellency,
The Irish Government have had under consideration Your Excellency's Note no. 572 of the 1st November, 1945¹, on the subject of the identification and immobilisation of assets in this country owned or controlled by the Governments of Germany and Japan or by residents or nationals of those countries. My Government's views with regard to this matter are as follows.

2. The assets referred to in Your Excellency's Note would seem to fall into two categories, viz., assets belonging to the Governments or nationals of countries which were under German or Japanese occupation, and assets belonging, or alleged to belong, to the Governments, or members of the Governments, of Germany and Japan, or to residents in or nationals of those countries. As regards the first category - that is to say, the property of occupied countries appropriated contrary to international law - the attitude of the Irish Government as expressed in my Note to Your Excellency of the 9th December, 1944, remains unchanged.² The Irish Government has no indication whatever that any such property has found a refuge on Irish territory, and no evidence or suggestion to that effect has reached it from any other Government. The reasons for this will be apparent to Your Excellency. Having regard to the geographical situation of this country, property of the kind in question could not have reached Irish territory during the war without circumventing the comprehensive measures of economic warfare taken by the Allies. Far from that being the case, however, no single article or commodity was imported into Ireland from any country, other than Great Britain, which was not accompanied by the appropriate document certifying its compliance with the Allied blockade conditions. I might add that no gold has been imported into this country since April, 1939.
3. Remote as the likelihood may be, however, if the Irish Government should become aware, either as a result of its own investigations or otherwise, of the presence in Irish territory of articles of property unlawfully removed from occupied countries, it will be prepared, in accordance with the attitude stated in my Note of the 9th December 1944, to inform the Government concerned of the fact and to take such measures as appear to it practicable and proper to ensure just restitution of the property. There is, therefore, nothing in the Declarations of the 5th January, 1943 and the 22nd February, 1944, or in the first part of Resolution VI of the Bretton Woods Conference, which is not in keeping with the policy of the Irish Government.
4. In connection with the second category of assets referred to in Your Excellency's Note - that is to say, property belonging, or alleged to belong, to the Governments and nationals of Germany and Japan - my Government recognize that the Government of the German Reich has ceased to exist and that the authority and powers which that Government previously possessed in Germany have been assumed, and are at present being exercised, by the Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Great Britain and the French Republic, in accordance with their joint Declaration of the 5th June, 1945. The position with regard to German-owned property in this country may, accordingly, be stated as follows for the information of the Government of the United States.
5. On the 11th August, 1944, an Order, entitled the Emergency Powers No. 335 Order, 1944, was made by the Government of Ireland. By this Order, it became obligatory for every person, company and corporation in Ireland accountable to any person, company or corporation in Germany for the payment of any debt, rent, bank balance, bank credit, dividend, interest, or any other obligation to effect a payment, howsoever arising, to furnish full particulars of the obligation to the Department of Finance in Dublin and, if so required by the Minister for Finance, to pay the amount of the obligation to him. I enclose a copy of this Order, which, it will be noted, applies not merely to obligations existing at the time of its promulgation, but also to obligations arising thereafter. Particulars with regard to the German-owned property covered by the Order have been furnished to the Department of Finance in accordance with its terms, and sums amounting on the 11th June, 1946, to £101,385 in all have been paid to the Irish Government. With a few exceptions of trifling significance (e.g., rents, dividends and interest payments, etc.), all the German-owned assets declared to the Department of Finance in accordance with the Order were already in existence in this country prior to the war. The operation of the Order has shown, in other words, that no German capital was transferred to Ireland during the war: and, indeed, for the reasons to which I have already referred, it is unlikely that such transfers, even if they had been attempted, would have escaped notice or proved capable of being effected.
6. Your Excellency is, no doubt, already aware of the circumstances in which Emergency Powers No. 335 Order, 1944, was made. As was stated in the official announcement issued to the Press on the 12th August, 1944, the purpose of the Order was to provide, so far as possible, for the liquidation of the Irish Government's financial claims against the Government of the German Reich in respect of bomb damage and other matters. The claims in question include, in addition to other items, a sum of £455,000 in respect of bomb damage in Dublin, £15,000 in respect of bomb damage at Campile, Co. Wexford, and £35,000 in respect of the internment expenses of German air and naval personnel. Efforts to secure payment of the claims which had been made otherwise than in German Reichmarks having proved unsuccessful, the Order of the 11th August, 1944, was made, the sums received by the Minister for Finance thereunder being credited against the total of the Irish Government's claims. The German Government accepted this solution and indicated its intention of compensating the German owners or creditors in Reichmarks.
7. There were no Japanese residents in Ireland before the war, and the only Japanese nationals resident in this country during the war were the Consul-General of Japan, his wife and a Consul. So far as the Irish Government is aware, there are no assets in Irish territory under Japanese ownership or control. The observations made earlier in this Note on the subject of the transfer of German-owned assets to this country during the war apply with equal or greater force to the case of Japanese assets.
8. It will be clear from the foregoing information that, so far as Ireland is concerned, there is no ground for the apprehensions expressed in the third paragraph of Your Excellency's Note. There is no evidence that assets of occupied countries have been disposed of in Ireland, and the circumstances of the case are such as to preclude the likelihood of any such hypothesis. No financial or other assets belonging to Axis Governments or nationals were transferred to Ireland during the war, and all the German assets covered by Emergency Powers No. 335 Order which were already located in Irish territory when the war began ceased on the 11th August, 1944, to be the property of their former owners and became payable on demand to the Minister for Finance of Ireland under the terms of the Order. The Irish Government believe, therefore, that there is nothing in the circumstances obtaining in this country which conflicts with the objects of the United Nations as explained in Your Excellency's Note, and that, in view of the facts stated above and of the action already taken by the Irish Government, there is no occasion, so far as this country is concerned, for taking the particular administrative measures suggested in paragraphs 1 to 8 of Your Excellency's Note.
   Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurance of my highest consideration.

(Sgd.) Éamon de Valera