Teleprinter message from Thomas J. Horan to Gerard Woods (London)
(No. 4082)

Your 5538 recd.¹ We will be on the lookout for an application.

However, I think that possibly your correspondent is thinking rather of his regulations than ours: his regulations make it an offence to bring a child in such circumstances out of Great Britain. Here there is no offence unless the child were being abducted.

It is usual however for a passport to be applied for on behalf of such a child before it leaves this country. That is why I told you just before the Jane Russell case broke² that we did not envisage the possibility of your having to deal with any such applications. It is well to remember however that there is no law to prevent anyone leaving this country and an immigration officer at Collinstown, for instance, would have no authority to stop the couple referred to in your message, unless he had evidence that the child was being abducted by them.

As far as we know, US servicemen and others who come here to get children for adoption, always get a passport for the child before the child leaves this country but of course there is nothing to stop them once they have the child, getting on the boat at Dun Laoghaire or the plane at Collinstown and returning to Great Britain without bothering about the passport.

We shall be on the lookout for this case and if you receive an application please refer it to us.