Irish delegation to Anglo-Irish Trade and Sterling Area Talks
Meeting to discuss talks, tactics and overall strategy

A meeting of the Irish Delegation was held in the High Commissioner's Office on Monday afternoon. It was agreed that the notes to be prepared should show -

• what supplies it would be possible to provide for Great Britain if certain supplies were received from Great Britain; and
• what dollar expenditure could be saved if certain supplies were received from Great Britain.

In the case of the Department of Agriculture, the notes would show the estimated effect, so far as exports to Great Britain are concerned, of the provision of fertilisers, feeding stuffs, etc., and the adjustment of prices. Attention was directed to the Ministerial direction that at this stage no reference should be made on the Irish side to possible economy in dollar expenditure by curtailment of consumption. It was agreed that for the purpose of stating our requirements of various items, we should adopt not the optimum requirements mentioned in the schedule prepared for the Department of Finance, but the estimate based on expectations if the currency crisis had not arisen. This, it was pointed out, had been scaled down to some extent so far as certain of the materials are concerned, and was the basis of the Estimate of Foreign Exchange Requirements prepared by the Department of Finance which the Ministers had agreed might be made known to the Treasury at the appropriate time.

Mr. Leydon emphasised the necessity for our getting information from the British. The submission of information must not be a one-sided matter. We wanted a lot of information about their petrol consumption and other matters and would ask for it at the appropriate stage. Mr. McElligott pointed out that there ought to be no difficulty about this as the British had undertaken to make full and frank disclosure.

Notes were prepared by the two Departments and copies were sent to the Commonwealth Relations Office which had undertaken to circulate them to the various people concerned. Copies of the notes are attached.¹