Exchange of minutes between Seán O'hÉideáin, Michael Rynne and
Liam Cosgrave (Dublin)

I have tagged hereon the Note of 24th December, 1951,¹ to the US Ambassador, paragraph 7 of which contained the guarantee that we would resist any attempt to use our territory as a base for attack against the United States or Britain.

You will notice that the original Note was returned to the Department by the US Embassy on 4th January, 1952. The reasons for this appear to have been that the US authorities objected to the reference in the Note to Partition and that they thought the request for arms should have formed a separate Note. However, you will also notice (Secretary’s minute of 5th February, 1952)² that, while the US Department of State would have preferred to consider the Note of 24th December, 1951, as withdrawn, our line was that it formed part of the record and was not withdrawn.

No public reference has ever been made to the guarantee given to the US. Consequently, publication (with the consent of the US Government) of the exchange of Notes would be necessary before we could now make use of it. I cannot see that any useful purpose would be served by publication at this stage.

Minister³
You mentioned that you wished to see the Note of 24.12.51 to the US Ambassador, in which occurs our guarantee to USA to prevent 26 Co. territory from being used by enemy of the US. This was in connection with reply to Dr. Ehlen’s questions for ‘Le Monde’. As there has been no publication so far of the offer to be made to the US, it would seem inappropriate to divulge it to a mere newspaper correspondent.