Confidential report from Frederick H. Boland to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
(Confidential) (Copy)

When I saw the Taoiseach and the Minister on Sunday, I mentioned the question of our representation at the Commonwealth talks about the future of the £, about which I wrote to you a few days ago.¹

They seem to me to incline to the view that if possible, it would be better that we should have some representation at the meetings. The risk of our thereby being committed to reductions in our dollar expenditures seemed to them to be outweighed by the risk of decisions affecting our interests being taken without our having any voice in them. I didn’t understand them to decide the point definitely however and, therefore, I am taking no action pending instructions from you. Perhaps you would mention the matter to the Minister when he returns and let me know what action, if any, I should take about it.

In my previous letter, I wrote as if the possibilities were restricted to our participating in the talks on the same basis as the others or to our taking part in them in the capacity of observers. There is one other possibility which I might have mentioned and that is that our Minister for Finance² should be invited over to attend the official dinner which no doubt the British Government will be giving in honour of the visiting Commonwealth Ministers. This would probably give our Minister for Finance pretty full opportunities of making known any special views which we might wish to put over and it might conceivably be an easier course for the people here who, I am afraid, are likely to see considerable difficulties about our being present when other non-Commonwealth Governments in the Sterling Area are left out in the cold.

Incidentally, I see that Canada is to participate officially in the talks even though she is not a ‘Commonwealth Country of the Sterling Area’.