Minute from Jack Molloy to Frederick H. Boland (London)

At a reception in the Russian Embassy on the 13th March last at which a film ‘The Grand Concert’ was shown, I met for the first time a Mr. Georgi Rodionov,¹ one of the First Secretaries of the Russian Embassy. I attended the film show in company with Miss Ryan² and Mr. Barry.³ The latter meets Mr. Rodionov at the monthly Conferences of the Economic Counsellors and First Secretaries in London. On the 14th instant Mr. Rodionov asked me on the phone whether I would lunch with him on Friday, 18th instant. I agreed to do so.

Mr. Rodionov is quite a pleasant type and we had quite an enjoyable lunch, in the course of which he said that he would like to have some information regarding present-day Ireland from the economic and political points of view. He said that nothing was known of Ireland in Russia except the name of Mr. de Valera and a certain amount of information regarding the ‘Russian Jewels’ which were returned through the Embassy a couple of years ago. He asked me whether our Embassy was receiving the Soviet Information Bulletin ‘Soviet News’ and whether we issued an Information Bulletin of our own. I told him that we do receive ‘Soviet News’ and that, if he wished, I would have his name put on the mailing list for our Bulletin. He asked also whether I would send him some publications which would give him some idea of political and economic trends in Ireland today. I said that I would do so, and I propose to send him the following:-

At a reception in the Austrian Embassy on the 24th instant, the Commercial Attaché of the Portuguese Embassy told me that he had, in the last month, been invited to lunch by Mr. Rodionov. He had decided not to accept the invitation as Portugal was not in relations with the Soviet [Union], despite the fact that his Ambassador, whom he had consulted, had told him that he might accept the invitation if he wished to do so. At the same reception, the Commercial Counsellor of the Swiss Legation told me that he had heard that Mr. Rodionov had – also in the last few months – invited the First Secretaries of the Danish and Norwegian Embassies to lunch and that both had accepted the invitation. Nothing of importance had, however, been brought up at the lunches and the First Secretaries were really puzzled as to the reason for the invitation. I understand that the invitations to the Portuguese, Danish and Norwegian representatives were the first ever received by them or by any of the other officials in their Embassies. After the Portuguese representative had told me of his invitation, I told him of mine and we were both very interested to hear of the invitations received by the Danes and Norwegians. The general feeling was that Rodionov’s invitations arose as the result of some directive.