Confidential report from John W. Dulanty to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(Secret Report No. 28)

The night before last, the King gave an evening Party (six to eight o'clock) at Buckingham Palace to meet the Delegates to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.

There being many guests, the King and Queen shook hands with each but made no attempt at conversation. When I was received, however the Queen kept me to say a word of welcome; the King too was cordial. My reception being clearly less official than the rest, I felt I should avoid formality; so, with what I hope was the right sort of light in my eye, I said that in present circumstances it was good of them to ask me to their party! The King laughingly answered that he thought so too, and that he had intended to make a similar remark to me, 'but', he added, 'it was better that you and not I said it'.

Although there were other guests to be received, the King surprisingly left his place, walked along with me, and spoke of his regret at the forthcoming repeal of the External Relations Act. Both his Father and himself had always entertained a great liking for the Irish people and they would have been glad to have been able to have a residence in Ireland. Though it was obviously no occasion for argument, I ventured to give him a quick summary of our case, emphasising that my Government's purpose was to remove a serious obstacle to the 'good neighbour' relations which they earnestly wished might subsist between Britain and Ireland. This was, as everyone knew, part of their avowed policy. He thought the proposed change rather sad since it was a pity we were about to leave a circle in which the British and the Irish could help each other so much.

The following evening, at a reception given by the Prime Minister of Ceylon,¹ the Royal couple stopped in their progress through the party and went out of their way to come and talk to me. This time there were no references to our question, the King saying with a gay flourish 'we had all that out last night'. There was a bit of banter from the High Commissioner for Ceylon² about my being the 'absent doyen' of the High Commissioners in London. Someone in the entourage said I had been in London so long that very likely the Irish Government had forgotten I was still here. The Queen's remark on this escaped me in the laughter but I gathered afterwards she said that she did not think the Irish Government was given to forgetting.

Without giving these slight incidents a significance they don't possess, I send this note of them because they seem to me to be symptomatic of the friendly atmosphere towards us which at present one meets nearly everywhere in London.