Confidential report from John W. Dulanty to Frederick H. Boland (Dublin)
(Secret Report No. 24)¹

I saw Mr. Anthony Eden² at his house this morning. 'The Times' of today, in reference to the assurances of Mr. Attlee on the 28th October, 1948, and on November 25th said 'on neither occasion, so far as is known, was any protest then made from Dublin about the assurance given to Northern Ireland'. I explained that we had made vigorous protest, both in January and in February - the moment we heard of the newspaper suggestion of a statutory pledge.

I went over most of the ground covered by the Aide Mémoire of 7th May³ and I talked on much the same lines as I did to Mr. Attlee and Mr. Noel-Baker yesterday,⁴ emphasising finally the Minister's view that the feeling in Ireland as a result of the British Government's announcement was even more intense than he had thought when in London last week.

Mr. Eden said he agreed cordially with that part of the Bill relating to citizenship. He had always wanted the closest relations to subsist between our two countries. We had to live together and all through his political life he had wanted to remove any barrier to active goodwill and co-operation between the English and the Irish. He was bound to say, however, that he did not think the Government here could have done any less than they had done. The internal politics of Ireland were, of course, not his affair but his information was that there was a certain amount of internal competition and that Mr. Costello had probably thought to get ahead of Mr. de Valera by declaring the Republic in what seemed a curiously abrupt way. Surely he must have seen that such an occasion would create a problem for any Government in Westminster, whatever its political character. He admitted my point that we were merely acting within our own right but said that it seemed probable to him that our Government did not realise the consequences for the British.

He did not stress our neutrality in the war as Mr. Noel-Baker did but he expressed his great regret that we had not gone into the Atlantic Pact. I explained our position on that but he said he felt that it would have opened the gate to some agreement with the Six Counties.

On Wednesday next he would be bound to support the Government but apart from what I had told him of the growing intensity of feeling in Ireland against the Bill, he had intended all along to avoid saying anything which would irritate or embarrass anybody. He had had a conference yesterday with his own people, had also talked to the Six County representatives and it was agreed that this would be their line. Some of the Six County representatives were disposed to refrain from the debate and to leave such criticism of the Bill as was to be made from the Opposition side of the House to the British ? 'That is my intention', he said, 'but, of course, you never can tell what may happen in a Parliamentary debate, particularly when Ireland is the subject of debate'.

He would always be glad to see me because it was of great importance to him and his colleagues to learn all they could of the feeling in Ireland.