'Note of conversation between the Minister
and the French Ambassador on 8th October 1952'
by Frank Aiken
(Secret) (Copy)

The French Ambassador¹ asked to see me yesterday and, as then arranged, he called this morning at 10.30.

He said that he had information from Paris in regard to the representations I had made to him about the presence of French planes in the Six Counties. He was informed that it was part of the NATO exercises in which the American, British, Dutch and French forces participated. The French planes which landed in the Six Counties came from Morocco and consisted of a squadron of seven planes.

M. Felix went on to explain that these were purely military exercises and that there was no political significance to be attached to them; that from an international point of view the Treaty had fixed the relations between Ireland and Britain.

I said that the Treaty had been completely abrogated and had now no force or effect; that it had been imposed on the Irish people by threats of immediate and terrible war by the British; that many of the Irish people had been prepared to die to oppose its being accepted; that the majority of the people had repudiated it in various elections; and that no party or organised body of opinion now stood for its terms. I went on to say that the Treaty which was submitted to by some of our people for a time had no more force than some arrangement come to by Marshal Pétain with the Germans when the French were overwhelmed.

I said that we realized the extremely good relations between the French and the Irish Governments, but that it was the duty of both Governments to see that nothing happened which would disturb good feelings between the French and the Irish peoples; that any action that the French Government or forces might take which would give the appearance of their agreement to the British occupation of the Six Counties would be as bitterly resented by the Irish people as the French people would have resented similar action by the Irish Government or forces when the Germans occupied France during the war.

I urged M. Felix to impress upon his Government the desirability of using their influence in NATO circles in order to see that the Six Counties would be avoided by NATO forces in any future exercises.

M. Felix stayed about three-quarters of an hour and we discussed Partition and also the danger of war. M. Felix said that he thought that there was very little chance of Partition being settled with the Tory Government in office. I said that, of course, I did not know, but that I did not despair of the Tories as it was with a Tory Government we made the Agreement in 1938. He said he didn’t see the possibility of a compromise, and I replied that although we would naturally prefer a united government for the whole of Ireland, we were prepared to compromise by agreeing to leave a Six-County Parliament in existence, provided the powers which Westminster held over the Six Counties were transferred to Dublin and the Members of Parliament attending Westminster came to the Dáil.

In reference to war and NATO, I said we were determined that Partition should be brought to an end and that the attitude of the Irish people was that if others asked our soldiers and people to die for their freedom, they should display sufficient interest in ours to enable us to obtain it without bloodshed or real sacrifices on anyone’s part.

M. Felix asserted that the danger of war was receding. I said that I didn’t think so; that the competition in building up arms was so intensive and the volume of arms so enormous that I feared a spontaneous explosion. I said that while we all hoped that war would be avoided, our Government regarded it as its duty to act on the assumption that the worst might happen.

M. Felix reverted to the exercises before leaving and again made the point that it would be impossible for the French government to refuse to take part in NATO exercises. I again asked him to impress upon his Government the desirability of using their influence in NATO circles to avoid using the Six Counties and pointed out that there were hundreds of other places in Western Europe and in Britain upon which they could be based. I said that if he wanted to realize the Irish people’s attitude he would have to imagine what he himself would have thought when the Germans were in occupation in Northern France if the Irish Government had accepted an invitation from the Germans to send Irish troops to northern France to participate with the Germans in joint exercises on French soil.