Minute by Joseph D. Brennan

As to Partition, the State Department viewpoint evidently prevails, not only in legislative circles, but in Army and Navy circles. The writer dined recently with Captain W.V. O'Regan¹ who has just finished two years at the War College. At this College, all sorts of political, diplomatic and military questions are studied by the pupils who are a selected group from the various services, and include not only American officers but also British personnel. Captain O'Regan told me that Partition has been stated to them to be a domestic issue and is not one considered to be of strategic danger to the U.S.A. The question has never been put before them as a problem but they have been given to understand that a majority of the inhabitants of the six counties are quite happy in their present situation and are adverse to any movement which would link the thirty-two counties together once more. Captain O'Regan has also told me that in discussion of Ireland's neutrality during the war, some of the best defenders of Ireland's position in the classes were British officers who, apparently, knew the situation from first-hand knowledge much better than the American officers. O'Regan, it may be mentioned, is leaving shortly to take command of the Cruiser 'Dayton', at Boston; this is a new Cruiser which is being outfitted, and he will be there for a couple of months before proceeding to duty in the North Atlantic. (I have asked our Consul in Boston, Mr. Shields, to look him up when he gets there).

As might be surmised from Captain O'Regan's service in the War College, he is generally regarded as an officer who will reach the highest ranks of the Navy. He was on the military mission to Turkey, was previously in service in the Pacific in charge of submarine flotillas, has taught at Annapolis, and was especially selected (in 1938) to be in charge of the detachment of the Navy at the N.Y. World's Fair. Credence may be attached to anything he says.