Confidential report from John W. Dulanty to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(Secret Report No. 16)

Mr. Noel-Baker addressed the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House this week on the subject of 'The British Commonwealth and the World'. The lecture, which he told me he wrote for publication in some future issue of 'International Affairs', was largely an exposition of the work of the Commonwealth Relations Office and its main function of securing active goodwill and co-operation between Whitehall and the Commonwealth Governments.

These lectures, as you probably know, are followed by discussions which are never reported in the press. At every meeting the Chairman reads out a standing rule which is an injunction on all present to take a kind of Trappist vow of silence about the names of any of the speakers or of the opinions there expressed.

A question was asked as to the future position of a country which declined allegiance to the Crown and wished to go outside the Commonwealth. Mr. Noel-Baker answered by saying that that was a question under immediate consideration. After the meeting he jokingly threatened me with dire penalties if I communicated any part of the proceedings to Dublin. When I remarked that he had said nothing that couldn't have appeared in full in the press, he said that was his own opinion but there were others who thought he had gone rather far, adding that he thought these critics had India in mind. On his reference to 'immediate consideration', he said that if I had not been present, he might have been tempted to say that anybody who goes out of the Commonwealth would certainly be the losers.

In the conversation I had with him on the 23rd September, he said about the Taoiseach's Ottawa speech that it was not well-timed adding in confidence that 'my own guess is that Seán put him up to it'. He also mentioned his recent visit to Ireland and said with somewhat excessive emphasis that he had been there on holiday and had been resolute in his determination 'not to talk shop'.

When today I gave to Lord Jowitt, the Minister's personal letter,¹ he asked me to stay until he had read it. He then said it was a good and candid reply to his own equally candid letter. He was due in about a quarter of an hour at a Cabinet Meeting and as we talked on the journey from the House of Lords, he was full of doubts about the possibility of the British being able to find a formula which would enable them to deal with foreign Governments who would claim the same treatment that Ireland had been receiving prior to the proposed repeal - 'We should like to get away with it, but, quite frankly, I do not see how we can.' These were his parting words as he turned into Downing Street and in a sombre mood left me to attend his meeting.

Talking to Lord Pakenham about the External Relations Act last week, I found him optimistic about the reception by the Government of the proposed repeal. When he lunched with me today, his opinion was changed. He had seen the Cabinet papers on the subject and had talked thereon with Members of the Government and was clear in his own mind that there was an immediate practical difficulty for the British after our repeal in their trade relations with foreign countries.

'There is no Machtig machination about this' he said, 'it is a really serious problem and whilst I think the British are approaching the matter in a conciliatory spirit, I do not think a solution is yet in sight'.

Sir Cornelius Gregg told me yesterday that on his resignation at the age limit from the British Civil Service, and his consequent retirement from the Chairmanship of the Board of Inland Revenue, he paid a farewell visit to his Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir Stafford Cripps opened the conversation by referring to the Taoiseach's Ottawa speech, reported that morning in the English press, saying 'I wonder whether the Irish Government realise the serious consequences which must follow. How will they like their people in Ireland to be deprived of the trade preferences and their people in England to be treated as aliens?'

I must finish this note now in order to hand it to you at the Airport in an hour from now.