Extracts from a confidential report from Frederick H. Boland to
Seán Nunan (Dublin)¹
(Top Secret)

I gathered from a confidential conversation which I had last night with Mr. Norman Robertson,² the Canadian High Commissioner, that our efforts to secure the exclusion of any reference to ‘Northern Ireland’ from the new royal title came somewhat nearer to success than we had suspected. You will remember that Mr. Robertson was one of the people here whom I had approached about the matter.

2. Mr. Robertson told me that when his Prime Minister came to London he had a talk with him, as a result of which Mr. St. Laurent was definitely convinced that the British Government would do far better to omit any reference to the Six Counties from the new title. Australia and New Zealand want to include some specific reference to Britain in their forms of the title, but neither of them wanted to go beyond the term ‘United Kingdom’, i.e. they were not prepared to add the words ‘of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.

[matter omitted]

5. I have known Mr. Robertson for many years and I place reliance on what he says. The account above demonstrates two things which it is worth our while, I think, to bear in mind. The first is that of all the Commonwealth countries other than Britain, Canada is the one most interested in Anglo-Irish relations and most likely to play a useful and sympathetic role in connection with the Partition problem if the opportunity should ever arise. The second thing is I think that, on major issues of this kind, it is always worth our while supporting our representations to Britain by parallel action in other Commonwealth capitals. If Mr. Robertson’s account is accurate, as I believe it is, I think we may have gained something from the recent discussion about the new title. It is not unimportant that, in view of the Partition problem, the three most important Commonwealth Governments overseas decide to adopt a different attitude from Great Britain and that so important a member of the Conservative Government as Lord Salisbury was inclined to modify the British attitude in deference to their view.