Letter from Frederick H. Boland to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
(Secret)

Shortly before I received your teleprinter message No. 2064 of 16th July,¹ I had a ring on the telephone from Mr. Kher, the new Indian High Commissioner here, asking whether he could come and see me the following day. We fixed an appointment for the following afternoon. About an hour later – after I had received your message, – I had a ring on the telephone from Mr. Krishna Menon² asking whether he could see me at once. We fixed an appointment for half an hour later. Both I and Miss Foxe,³ who also spoke to him on the phone, had the impression that Mr. Menon’s utterance on the telephone was extremely confused and unnatural. When he eventually turned up however, three-quarters of an hour later than the time we fixed, he seemed to have brightened up and to be rather excited and agitated. I have no doubt but that Mr. Menon uses narcotic stimulants.

2. Mr. Menon began a long discourse of which it was rather difficult to grasp the point. He revealed that he had been informed by a ‘faithful’ member of his former staff that Mr. Kher was coming to see me the following day. He said he wanted to warn us against Mr. Kher who was a ‘scheming politician’ and was under the mistaken impression that Britain and Ireland were the same country and that his accredition to Queen Elizabeth automatically carried with it accredition to Ireland. His only aim was to ensure that we were treated properly and that our President received the respect he deserved. He himself was, of course, still Ambassador to Ireland and, as such, he proposed to continue to act on that principle.
3. Having by that time received your message No. 2064, I told Krishna Menon that there was, of course, no question whatever of accredition to Britain carrying with it accredition to Ireland and I felt sure that the Indian Government were not under any such misapprehension. I knew, however, that Mr. Kher would be entirely persona grata to the Irish Government as Indian Ambassador to Ireland and would be informing him to that effect when I saw him the following day.
4. Mr. Menon then launched into a rambling argument, the point of which I guessed to be that he should have sent us much earlier an official Note requesting our agrément for Mr. Kher’s appointment; that he had neglected to do so; and that he didn’t want Mr. Kher to know of the omission. He said that his purpose in delaying the sending of the Note had been to allow an interval of time to elapse between Mr. Kher’s presentation of his Letter of Commission here and the presentation of his Letters of Credence to the President, in order to mark the distinction between the two posts. Mr. Kher, however, might interpret the omission otherwise and for that reason he would prefer that he did not know about it. He would send the Note at once and let me have a copy for my information. I said that if Mr. Kher asked me what the position was, I should have to tell him the fact but that the dating of the Note was not a material point from our point of view and therefore it would not be necessary for me to refer to it if Mr. Kher did not put me the question. Note or no Note, I would be informing him on instructions that his appointment would be entirely agreeable to the Irish Government. I thought, however, that it was very desirable that the Note should be sent in without further delay.
5. Mr. Menon then said that he would like to go over to Ireland himself to present his Letter of Recall personally. He thought that Mr. Nehru would prefer it that way and, so far as he himself was concerned, he would like to show the maximum courtesy to our President. He thought of going over to Ireland at once. I told him that the President was away at the moment and would not be back for some time. I asked him whether he had already received his letter of recall. He said that he had not and that a difficulty was that the officials in the Department of External Affairs in New Delhi – who were ‘all on Kher’s side’ – would probably send it to Kher which, of course, from the procedural point of view was entirely wrong. I said that of course all that was a matter into which we could not very well enter. My authorities in Dublin would expect a Letter of Recall to be presented in due course but the question by whom it was to be presented was a matter which they could only leave to the Indian Government.
6. Mr. Menon delivered himself of a great deal more rambling talk in the course of which he made many disparaging reflections on his successor and told me that Mr. Nehru had offered him the post of Roving Ambassador which he proposed to accept after a time ‘when the present storm had blown itself out’. He ended up by telling me that he felt that having been the first Ambassador to Ireland and we having no official decorations, he felt it would be appropriate – as he was sure it would be highly appreciated in India – if he was offered an honorary degree by one or other of the two Universities in Ireland – or better still, by both! He asked me to put this suggestion forward to the Taoiseach but not as coming from him. He was sure the Taoiseach could arrange the matter if he wished and that he would appreciate the political value of such a gesture. There was nothing casual in Krishna Menon’s reference to this subject. He returned to it several times in the course of his talk.
7. The impression I formed as a result of all Krishna Menon said was that he has probably been intriguing in an effort to retain the appointment of Indian Ambassador to Dublin; that, in order to gain time for the intrigue, he has refrained from taking official steps with a view to Mr. Kher’s appointment which he was specifically instructed to take; and that he is now somewhat apprehensive that he may have overplayed his hand and that Mr. Kher’s complaints to Pandit Nehru may damage him. An important fact which Mr. Menon plainly revealed on at least two occasions during his visit was that he is being kept closely informed of what takes place in Mr. Kher’s office.
8. Mr. Kher came to see me yesterday afternoon as we had arranged. I had in the meantime received your message No. 2064.⁴ Mr. Kher is a very different type from Mr. Menon. He is deeply versed in the literature of Irish nationalism and the prospect of becoming Indian Ambassador to Ireland is plainly for him a moving personal experience. He had obviously begun to entertain fears that we were anxious to retain Mr. Menon and that with our support, Mr. Menon would succeed in retaining the appointment of Indian Ambassador to Dublin. On the strength of your message No. 2064, I at once disabused Mr. Kher of any such apprehensions. He was visibly delighted and expressed effusive gratitude for the message. He asked whether he might so inform his Government and I told him that I was sure that the Minister would like that done as soon as possible. He then said that he was anxious to go over to Ireland at the earliest moment to present his Letter. I explained that the President was away but I would let him know as soon as possible when he would be back so that he could fix definitely the date of his visit. I asked him whether he would present the Letter of Recall of his predecessor at the same time as his own Letter of Credence. He said that he assumed that he would but that he would remind his Government of the point when he was cabling to them. In order that Mr. Kher may arrange his visit, perhaps you would be good enough to let me know as soon as possible when the President will be back in Dublin and in a position to receive the new Ambassador.
9. This morning Miss Foxe had a ring on the telephone from a lady speaking on behalf of Mr. Menon to say that he was sending over here this morning a letter addressed to the Minister which he would be glad if we could forward in today’s bag. The letter will no doubt reach you at the same time as the present report.