Letter from Cornelius C. Cremin to Conor Cruise O'Brien (Dublin)
(105/29) (329/50)

Dear Conor,¹
With reference to your letter 305/14/136 of the 15th April,² enclosing some notes prepared by the Minister for use in our efforts to secure favourable publicity here on Partition, I should tell you that I had already received a typescript copy of these notes under cover of a personal letter from the Minister dated 12th April.³ In accordance with the suggestion put forward in the Minister's letter, I have been in contact with Suzanne Alphand⁴ for the last ten days about the use of this material. She is still exploring the ground. She tells me, however, that she is rather doubtful, from the discussion she has so far had with her colleagues of the diplomatic press, whether we can succeed to any large extent, at least on the basis of the present tenor of the material. The main difficulty, according to a verbal report which I had from her last evening, lies in the fact that our case is unfavourable to Britain. This specific point is brought out in a letter which I have since received from Corval⁵ ofthe 'Aube'. I attach, as relevant to these papers, copy of my minute to the Department giving a translation of Corval's letter.⁶ Suzanne is pursuing her enquiries. We are to have a further discussion next week, when I intend to arrange, on the basis of her advice, individual meetings with some of the more friendly journalists.

Perhaps you will be so good as to show this letter to the Minister. I intend to reply directly to his letter of the 12th April as soon as I am in a position either to report some progress, or to give a more considered opinion. I hope that this will be shortly.