Confidential report from Frederick H. Boland to Seán Nunan (Dublin)¹
(Top Secret)

This year my wife and I received a Christmas card from the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires² and his wife to which we promptly sent a card in return. The fact struck me at the time, because the Soviet Embassy does not normally include the Irish Embassy in its exchanges of diplomatic courtesies.

2. The week before last, Mr. Geoffrey Bing called to see me at short notice and asked whether my wife and I would dine with him informally at his flat on the 22nd January. I said we would gladly do so. Mr. Bing then said that he proposed to invite also the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires and his wife (the Ambassador is absent in Moscow). He asked whether I had any objection to meeting them. I said that as he knew the relations between Ireland and Soviet Russia were not exactly close and cordial for reasons which – with his knowledge of Ireland – he no doubt understood. How did he know the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires hadn’t an objection to meeting me? Mr. Bing said at once and without disguise, that he knew that the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires had no such objection because he had asked him. Linking this with the Christmas card, I reached the conclusion that the dinner was being arranged at the instance of the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires because he had something to impart. I had some doubts for a moment what to do, but in the end, I accepted Mr. Bing’s invitation.
3. The dinner at Mr. Bing’s flat consisted of the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires and his wife, ourselves, Mr. Tikhvinsky, a Counsellor at the Soviet Embassy, Mr. Bing and Miss Terry Cullen, a friend of Mr. Bing’s. Conversation during dinner was purely general but after the meal, the Chargé d’Affaires came over and sat down beside me on a couch and came at once to the subject which, I feel sure, the dinner had been arranged to give him an opportunity of mentioning.
4. The Chargé d’Affaires began by saying that Soviet Russia was in the process of trying to improve her relations with all countries and she wished to have better relations with our country among others. He said that he knew that Ireland had stayed out of the Atlantic pact and was not associated with international combinations hostile to the Soviet Union. Ireland’s attitude in that regard was appreciated. It was true that Soviet Russia had vetoed Ireland’s application for membership of the United Nations. If it were possible to reverse that decision now, it would probably be done but the pending applications had come to depend so much on a collective decision that there was no possibility now of dealing with applications individually. He thought that if the Irish Government were so disposed, diplomatic relations might be established between the two countries in some form or other.
5. I told the Chargé d’Affaires that I have no authority of any kind to discuss the matters he had mentioned. Officially I could say nothing whatever to him about them. There were a number of factors, however, bearing on our attitude to the Soviet Union which were matters of general knowledge and therefore, perhaps, I could mention them to him quite frankly. It was true, as he said, that we had not become members of NATO. The reason for that was the partition of our country; our people simply could not accept the claim of countries like Britain to be the champions of national freedom and democracy as long as they took no action to terminate the violation of those principles represented by the partition of Ireland. It would be wrong to see in that attitude, however, either a partiality for Russia and the Eastern European countries, or an indifference to the big ideological issues facing the world today. Ireland is a profoundly religious country, the vast majority of the population being Catholics. That being so, the attitude of our people towards Communism was the very opposite of one of sympathy. On the contrary, our people were profoundly opposed to Communism, particularly in its attitude towards religion. Irish opinion had been deeply moved by the trial and imprisonment of Prelates such as Cardinal Mindszenty and Archbishop Beran.³ Even today, the imprisonment of Irish priests in Communist China was causing great resentment on the part of Irish public opinion. I instanced the recent agitation about Soviet timber imports as an example of the kind of thing which anti-Communist feeling in Ireland was apt to entail. The Chargé d’Affaires commented at this point that one of the things the Soviet Government would like to see would be an improvement of their trade exchanges with Ireland.
6. Reminding the Chargé d’Affaires that I was talking purely personally and simply mentioning facts which I thought would be apparent to himself from a reading of the Irish newspapers, I told him I was anxious that he should not misconstrue what I had said. It did not mean for example, that Ireland was out to pursue a foreign policy of positive hostility to the Soviet Union. We, as a very small country, did not envisage ourselves as playing a major role in the world diplomatic scene at all and we had no desire to get tied up in controversies between the great Powers. Our sympathies in world affairs were, if anything, with the small nationalities struggling for their freedom and with small countries trying to rid themselves of obsolete situations prejudicial to their sovereignty and independence.
7. The Chargé d’Affaires said that he assumed that we recognised the Soviet Union. I reminded him that we had voted for the entry of the Soviet Union into the League of Nations in 1934⁴ and that we had had direct dealings with the Soviet Government through the Embassy at London since then (I said nothing about the Baltic States). The Chargé d’Affaires said that that was what he had thought, but he had noticed that when we had recently sought the good offices of the Soviet Union with a view to the release of Monsignor Quinlan⁵ from North Korea, we had made the démarche through the British Foreign Office and not through his Embassy. I said that I could not remember the circumstances of Monsignor Quinlan’s case offhand but I was interested by the example he gave because we have at present a priest (Father Aidan McGrath)⁶ imprisoned in Communist China whose release we have been trying for some time to secure. Would I be correct in construing his remark to mean that if we sought the good offices of the Soviet Government through his Embassy, with a view to Father McGrath’s release, they would be prepared to do something? The Chargé d’Affaires said that that was not a question he could answer definitely without referring to his superior authorities but he thought that the answer was probably ‘yes’. I said, of course, that I was merely enquiring the position. I could not make any such request without an instruction from my authorities which I had not got.
8. The Chargé d’Affaires said that he appreciated what I had said. So far as the Soviet Government was concerned, it had no quarrel with Ireland. The difficulty we had had during the war about the ships was purely technical and didn’t matter. The absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries need not matter because he realised that there were a lot of countries with whom we had no diplomatic relations and that that did not mean that we were on bad terms with them or did not recognise their governments. In spite of the obstacles, he hoped it would be possible to ‘normalise’ the relations between the two countries in the trade, cultural and other spheres. I said that when he mentioned the word ‘cultural’, I felt bound to remind him again of what I had said about the attitude of our people towards Communism.
9. Nothing that I said seemed to surprise the Chargé d’Affaires who appeared to be reasonably well-informed about Ireland and Irish points of view. The attitude of the Chargé d’Affaires was one of keen and not unfriendly interest and although I spoke to him frankly, I carefully avoided any suggestion of acrimony. This démarche, which is quite clearly one of a series which Soviet Russia is making to a number of countries, raises some implications which I would like to have an opportunity of discussing when I am next in Dublin.