Letter from Seán Nunan to Maurice Moynihan (Dublin)
(305/23)

I am directed by the Minister for External Affairs to refer to your minute (S.15212) of the 28th November, 1951,¹ regarding the case of Andreo Geoffroy, a Breton nationalist,² who has been sentenced to death by a French court, and to enclose, for your information, a note³ containing all the information available to the Department in this case at the present time. The Ambassador at Paris is endeavouring to obtain further information and this will be communicated to you when received. The Ambassador has reported that he has been given to understand by an official of the French Foreign Office that the report in the ‘Monde’ of the 15th November, 1951, (translation attached)⁴ though brief, gives the essential facts of the case.

The Minister for External Affairs considers that no official action should be taken in this case since it would be contrary to international usage to intervene in a case between another Government and one of its own nationals. Subject, however, to whatever further information may be supplied regarding the case by the Ambassador at Paris, he feels that the Ambassador might be instructed to make an informal approach to the French Foreign Office and to mention the fact that the case has aroused a certain amount of interest here and that requests have been made to the Government to take some steps on behalf of the condemned man. The Ambassador feels that it would be possible for him to raise the matter in this informal way with the French authorities without committing this country on the question of Breton autonomy and he is of the opinion that the reasons for his approach would be understood by the Foreign Office and would not be resented.