Extract from a letter from Frederick H. Boland to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
(Confidential)

I am forwarding herewith, for purposes of record, a list of the principal guests at the reception at Grosvenor House on the evening of the 24th January when the Minister and Mr. Liam Cosgrave were in London.

All those invited were Members of the so-called 'Commando Group' of the Labour Party - the active and rather vocal section of the Party of which Mr. Aneurin Bevan is popularly regarded as the Leader. Of those invited, all accepted except Mr. Leslie Hale,¹ who was speaking in his Constituency, and Messrs. Crossman² and Mallalieu³, who had previous engagements, but met the Minister earlier in the evening at the House of Commons.

The 'Commando Group' is the intellectual spearhead of British Socialism. Acland,⁴ Crossman, Driberg,⁵ Mallalieu, Mikardo⁶ and Foot⁷ are generally regarded as among the most intelligent people on the Government side of the House of Commons. It will be noticed that most of these are alumni of famous Public Schools and of one or other of the two senior British Universities!

This group, as a whole, opposes the official Labour Government policy enshrined in the Ireland Act and regards the legislative sanction given in that Act to the partition of Ireland as a betrayal of Labour Party principles. Foot, Bing,⁸ Delargy,⁹ and other members of the Group have told me that it is a deliberate policy of their Group to get the Ireland Act policy reversed and to make the ending of Irish Partition a deliberate aim of British Socialism. The publication by 'Tribune' of 'John Bull's Other Ireland',¹⁰ as well as the reference to the Ireland Act in the recent Tribune pamphlet 'Full Speed Ahead' are expressions of the point of view of the 'Commando Group' in this regard. Although in point of intellect and powers of leadership, the Group undoubtedly comprises a number of future leaders of British Socialism, its influence in the councils of the Parliamentary Labour Party in present circumstances is probably not much more than a high nuisance factor.

[matter omitted]