Letter from John Leydon to Seán Nunan (Dublin)

Dear Nunan,
I have your letter of 8th March¹ about the enquiry made by the American Chargé d'Affaires in relation to the overflight of this country by U.S. Army Air Force aircraft.

2. The major questions of policy arising on this request are primarily the concern of your Department and the Department of Defence. This Department is concerned from the operational point of view and also because of our responsibility as a Department for the administration of the Air Navigation (General) Regulations, 1930.
3. The proposal so far as it is described in your letter seems to be somewhat vague; it is not clear whether it is intended to apply to a definite mass movement of aircraft which would be spread over a particular period and then terminated, or whether, on the other hand, your reference to a 'general arrangement' and to 'carriage of a higher load of freight' implies that the operation would be of indefinite duration.
4. It appears that in general we would receive about ten hours' notice of such flights. This notice would be quite sufficient, as far as we are concerned, from an operational viewpoint and would meet the requirements of the technical services. From that aspect, therefore, it may be said that we would not have any objection to the arrangement.
5. Article 75 of the Air Navigation (General) Regulations, 1930, would of course apply to these overflights in the same way as it applies to landings by foreign military aircraft. I presume, therefore, that it would be necessary that this Department should submit a memorandum to the Government, post factum, in the case of each overflight. I take it that before giving Mr. Meyer² an affirmative reply to his enquiry, you would confirm that such an arrangement would be acceptable to the Government. If the overflights were frequent the preparation of the memoranda would be something of a nuisance to my Department but we shall not object on that score if the Government are satisfied to accept the memoranda; but we should have general Government approval before embarking on such an arrangement.
6. I am sending copies of this letter to MacMahon³ and (in view of previous correspondence about the implementation of Article 75 of the 1930 Regulations) to Moynihan.