Handwritten letter from Michael MacWhite to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)

I was somewhat surprised on learning of the appointment of George Garrett to Dublin. I met him soon after going to Washington at a luncheon given by Bill Macaulay¹ at which his lady friend Mrs. James Curtis (Laura) was also present. The latter was separated from her husband who was a New York banker and was one of the leading hostesses in Washington fast society and amongst poker players. She had many male friends. Nicholas Longworth, Speaker of the House, died at her Summer residence in Georgia while on a week end visit. Macaulay moved in these circles before he got 'religion' and worshipped the Golden Calf under the symbol of the Cross. During one of my holidays in Ireland, he came from New York as Chargé and spent the three months as a guest of George Garrett.

My recollection is now somewhat hazy on the point but it is recurring in my mind that it was during these three months George got married and though I am not positive at this distance I am under the impression that his wife was Laura's daughter. There was a wedding anyhow for I learned from the colored janitor at the Legation that Macaulay imported the champagne for the occasion as he (Richard) went to Baltimore pier to fetch it and deliver it at Garrett's house.

Now, at the time I speak of in the early thirties G. was attached to some brokerage firm in Washington. Can it be that Macaulay has been able to pull strings at the State Department. At any rate if the Geo. Garrett who is appointed to Dublin is the same as I have referred to I, personally, would regard it as an affront. Can it be that Bill wants to visit Dublin as the guest of his old pal, and enjoy the amenities of what he would still, no doubt, refer to as the Chief Secretary's Lodge.

Dean Acheson who apparently makes diplomatic appointments hails from Connecticut where his father was if I remember rightly an Episcopal Bishop. His grandfather came from somewhere in Ulster. I knew him fairly well, also his friend Lou' Douglas who is Ambassador in London. In my [word unclear] their outlook was pro-English but definitely anti-Irish. They were both intimate friends of Hume Wrong, the present Canadian Under Secretary who was not so friendly to us although his grandfather, the Hon Edward Blake was a one time Redmondite M.P. whose best known speech was that if 'the Fenians should invade Canada he would be the first to take up his gun and shoot them.'

Whatever defects Gray had he was not a nonentity.