Letter from Frederick H. Boland to John W. Dulanty (London)
(317/34)

The Minister has carefully considered, in consultation with his colleagues, the communication from the Yugoslav Ambassador in London which you left with me when you were last in Dublin suggesting the appointment of a Yugoslav Consul General de carrière in Dublin. After careful consideration, it has been decided that such an appointment would not be opportune at the moment.

The Minister would be glad if you would be good enough to see the Yugoslav Ambassador and to inform him to this effect. In doing so, you might explain as delicately as circumstances permit that, having regard to the public feeling occasioned here by events in Yugoslavia such as the trial and imprisonment of Archbishop Stepinac, the arrival of a Yugoslav representative in Dublin would be apt to cause disagreeable criticism and Press comment to which they feel no official representative in this country should be exposed.

The general idea is to avoid having a Yugoslav representative here in present circumstances but, on the other hand, not to leave the Yugoslav authorities with the feeling that they have suffered a gratuitous and unnecessarily unfriendly rebuff.