Confidential report from John A. Belton to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
(Secret)

With reference to your secret minute P.253 of the 22nd March,¹ concerning Dr. Otto Strasser, I have to inform you that I called this afternoon to the Foreign Office to see Professor Dr. Ophüls, the Assistant Head of the Political Division. The Head of the Division with whom I discussed the case of Dr. Strasser last October² is absent on leave.

I said to Professor Ophüls that I had been officially informed last October that Dr. Strasser was persona non grata. He said he was aware of that. I went on to say that to my personal amazement, the German Government had later decided to grant him an unqualified passport, on the strength of which Dr. Strasser entered Ireland.³

Professor Ophüls informed me that Dr. Strasser had in the meantime made an application to the competent German Court for a declaration that he was a German citizen and as such entitled to a German passport. Dr. Adenauer was furious about this application and said that no matter what the Court held he would still refuse a passport. The Court held in favour of Dr. Strasser and Dr. Adenauer, bowing reluctantly to the advice of his colleagues agreed to the issue of a passport. Since then Dr. Strasser has returned to Germany where he has been under the closest police surveillance. Professor Ophüls said to me that if in October last when Dr. Strasser was in Canada he was considered to be persona non grata, he is now, at the very least, persona ingratissime. He was a Nazi and he is a Nazi, a man who has forgotten nothing and equally learned nothing. The German Government, whilst keeping the closest eye on him, do not regard him as an immediate menace, but potentially he is dangerous not so much through what he can do himself, but induce other people to do.

As regards the possibility of future visits to Ireland, Professor Ophüls said that any action the Irish Government might feel inclined to take against Dr. Strasser such as arrest on arrival and immediate deportation would evoke only a feeling of gratitude from the German Government.

At the end of the talk, Professor Ophüls said that he would inform Dr. Adenauer of what he had told me so as to be able to confirm the position beyond doubt. One hour later, he ‘phoned to say that he had received the most complete confirmation of what he had told me.

In the circumstances, I feel that we should place Dr. Strasser on our Black List, and if, by any chance, he still reaches Ireland, he should be sent home as speedily as possible.