Letter from Frank Aiken to Cloyce K. Huston (Dublin)
(Copy)

I have the honour to refer to your Note No. 151 of the 10th January, 1952,¹ in which you informed me that the Government of the United States of America considers that it has no alternative but to suspend the assistance being received by the Government of Ireland under the Economic Co-operation Agreement between Ireland and the United States, signed at Dublin on the 28th June, 1948.

2. The Irish Government regret this decision, but they recognise that it is a matter, finally, for the United States Government and, as already indicated, are sensible of the value of the assistance given to this country by the Government and people of the United States under the Economic Co-operation Agreement.
3. With regard to the phrase ‘failure of the Irish Government to accept the principles and purposes of the legislation under which assistance is furnished’, the Irish Government wish to make it clear that they adhered, and still adhere, to the principles and purposes of the Act under which the Agreement was made and assistance heretofore granted, namely, the Economic Co-operation Act of 1948.
4. As regards the Mutual Security Act of 1951, it was stated in paragraph 5 of the Irish Government’s Note of 24th December 1951² that:-

   ‘The Government and people of Ireland conceive it to be their duty to make the maximum contribution in their power to the promotion of international understanding and goodwill, to the maintenance of world peace and to the elimination of causes of international tension. It is because they seek these objectives without qualification or reserve that the Irish Government wish to obtain a peaceful and early ending of the unjust Partition of Ireland which not only adversely affects the internal development of the Irish nation but dominates its approach to all questions of external policy’.

5. Aware of the many factors in the situation, the Irish Government are convinced that the outline of the relations indicated in their Note of the 24th December, 1951, would best serve the interests of the two countries in present circumstances, and would urge full consideration of that Note by the Government of the United States.