Memorandum from Frank Biggar to Con Cremin (London)
'Australian Accredition to Ireland'
(Confidential) (Copy)

During the course of a conversation yesterday with Sir Edwin McCarthy,¹ the Australian Acting High Commissioner, the question of the vacant Australian Embassy in Dublin came up. The immediate occasion for the conversation taking this turn was an enquiry from Sir Edwin as to where Dr. Kiernan is now posted. I took the opportunity to remark that it seemed a pity that the Australian Government did not appear to be able to accept the formula ‘Uachtarán na Éireann’ which had proved acceptable to the Canadians. Sir Edwin said that if the Canadian appointment had occurred before the Australian Embassy had fallen vacant, he felt that his Government would have agreed to that formula but that the circumstances actually were that, when they had consulted the British, both the Palace and the Commonwealth Relations Office had expressed the opinion that the Australian Ambassador’s credentials should be addressed to ‘The President of the Republic of Ireland’ and the Australian Government had felt obliged to accept this point of view.

Sir Edwin said that both Mr. Menzies and Mr. Casey had been anxious to avoid a dispute over the matter. Neither of them were bigots (although there were bigots in other quarters) and they certainly did not wish to do anything which might affect their position adversely with the 25% of the Australian population which is of Irish origin. They felt, however, that it was unreasonable to insist on the Australian Ambassador’s credentials being addressed to ‘The President of Ireland’ when we had accepted the British Ambassador’s credentials addressed to ‘The President of the Republic of Ireland’. I said that the position was not the same in respect of the two countries since we had no quarrel with Australia and that the President’s title as set out in the Constitution was ‘President of Ireland’. I also remarked that phrases like ‘Dáil Éireann’, ‘Seanad Éireann’, ‘Radio Éireann’, etc. were universally accepted without difficulty and that we felt that ‘Uachtarán na hÉireann’ should be equally acceptable.

Finally, Sir Edwin said that he thought there was little likelihood of the problem being solved so long as the present Australian Government was in office. It was not that the necessary goodwill was lacking on the Australian side but that a definite position had been taken up by the present Government and it would be difficult for them to withdraw. If Dr. Evatt had been in power the difficulty would probably not have arisen but, in view of the events in which the Australian Labour party had been involved over the past couple of years, the eventual return to power of Dr. Evatt was extremely problematical.