Letter from Frederick H. Boland to G. P. S. Hogan (Dublin)

You will remember the correspondence we had last year in connection with the joint Allied démarche to us about German assets in this country.¹

When I was in Washington, Hickerson, of the State Department, indicated to me that, whereas they thought our official reply very full and frank, there were one or two outstanding points in connection with the matter which they would like to clear up for the purpose of enabling Ireland to be finally removed from the consideration of IARA (Inter-Allied Reparation Agency).

Following this reference by Hickerson, we have recently had informal and very friendly démarches from the American, French and British representatives here on the same point. Briefly, what they are concerned about is that, whereas our official reply gave full particulars of current payments accruing due to residents in Germany, it did not give any information about the extent of German-owned capital assets here. It was on this latter point that they would like some information in order to enable the question to be finally disposed of.

We replied to these démarches, which were made verbally for the express purpose, it was stated, of emphasising their friendly character, that the reason why our official reply dealt only with current payments was that we had only exact knowledge of the assets covered by our Emergency Powers Order. We said, on the other hand, that, so far as our information went, there were little or no German-owned capital assets in this country. The only important item we knew of in this regard was the capital of Siemens-Schuckert (Ireland), Ltd. The Allied representatives said that this was also their impression, but, in order to clear up the matter, they would like a reply from us on the point.

It is possible for your Department, either from the information already at your disposal or by means of enquiry, to supply us with the required information? To my mind, if the information can be obtained, there is nothing to be gained by not giving it. As we recognised in our official reply to the original démarche, the Allied Governments are the de facto authority in Germany and it is, no doubt, on that basis that they put the question. They did not ask for particulars of individual cases before and, as I understand it, they are not doing so now. They will be satisfied, I think, with a statement of the value of German-owned capital assets in this country so far as we can ascertain it.