Letter from Seán MacBride to Brendan Corish (Dublin)

Dear Brendan,
Ever so many thanks for your letter.¹ It was nice of you to think of writing.

I know so well the type of argument that you will meet from British people whenever you discuss Partition. They always, first of all, plead complete ignorance and then love to play the part of the 'honest broker', always ignoring the fact that, not only did they create Partition, but that they are actually maintaining it now. They are adepts at self-deception and become very pained when you point out to them that they are adopting in Ireland exactly the same tactics as the Germans adopted in Czecho-slovakia or the Russians are adopting in Central Europe.

You may find the line of argument which I used in a talk to the British Institute of International Affairs on Anglo-Irish Affairs useful.² I think you have a copy of it in your documentation.

I enclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a letter which I wrote to Van Zeeland,³ who is the new Belgian Foreign Minister and, as such, President of the OEEC. I wrote this letter in an effort to have our proposals, which are at present before the OEEC, considered in the near future; I think you have, in your documentation, a copy of the proposals.

There is nothing very new here. Bill Norton and Jim Everett have arrived back from Strasbourg and are looking well. Most of the other delegates are arriving back towards the end of the week. From the papers, I see that Bevin and Cripps got a very poor reception on arrival in New York. They were met at the pier by a big demonstration organised by the League for an Undivided Ireland. The dockers, who were Irish, refused to handle their luggage and they were met by a further hostile demonstration on their way to the station and at the station.

Let me know if there is anything you want us to do at this end, or if there is any further documentation you want us to send out.

Give my best wishes to the other boys.