Letter from Clement Attlee to John A. Costello (Dublin)
(Top Secret and Personal)

[enclosure]

I am sending you this message in view of our many common interests and our common membership of the sterling area and of O.E.E.C., in order to give you advance information of the decision of my Government to devalue the pound sterling, and to enable you to consider your own policy in the light of this decision.

2. The decision will be announced in a broadcast by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at 9.15 p.m. B.S.T. (8.15 p.m. G.M.T.) tomorrow, Sunday the 18th September, and will take effect from that time. The next day, Monday the 19th September, will be declared a Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom, and banks and stock exchanges will be closed; but it will not be a public holiday.
3. The theoretical gold content of the pound sterling as declared to the International Monetary Fund will be 38.40000 grains of fine gold, giving a sterling parity price of gold of 250 shillings per fine ounce, and a middle official U.S. dollar/sterling rate of 2.80 dollars to the pound.
4. I need hardly emphasise the importance of preserving the utmost secrecy about the contents of this message until the time of the announcement. I regret the very short notice which I have been able to give you, but, as you will appreciate, it was essential to make the interval between the final decision and the announcement as short as possible.
5. The International Monetary Fund is being consulted today. We recognise that this is less than the notice to which the Fund is entitled under its Articles, but we hope that there will in fact be sufficient support for our action to enable the Fund to declare its approval simultaneously with, or shortly after, our own announcement.
6. The Bank of England are telegraphing full advice on the technical aspects of the operation to the Governors of the Central Bank and the Bank of Ireland.