Desmond FitzGerald to Timothy A. Smiddy (Washington)
(Copy)

A Chara,

The British Government has instructed H.M. Ambassador at Washington to present a formal request to the President of the United States to receive a Minister Plenipotentiary on behalf of the Irish Free State.

Should the American Government accede to this request, and agree to accept you in that capacity, Letters of Credence from His Majesty will be duly forwarded to you for presentation.

The Free State Minister will be the official channel of communication with the United States Government for matters exclusively affecting the interests of the Irish Free State.

RELATIONS WITH H.M. AMBASSADOR

The Free State Minister shall not purport to deal with matters affecting the whole Commonwealth.

H.M. Ambassador shall be in no way responsible for action taken by the Free State Minister.

The Free State Minister shall not be in any way subject to H.M. Ambassador's control.

Instructions are being forwarded to H.M. Ambassador requesting him to afford his assistance and that of his staff to the Free State Minister.

In all matters affecting, or likely to affect the other, or any other, States Members of the Commonwealth, the Irish Free State Minister shall consult with the Ambassador and inform him fully of the position.

If any doubt should arise as to whether any particular question exclusively concerned the Irish Free State the point should, if possible, be settled by consultation between the Irish Free State Minister and the British Ambassador. Failing settlement by such consultation it should be referred to the two Governments.

The Government desires that the frankest and most cordial relations should exist between the Free State Minister and H.M. Ambassador and all steps should be taken to avoid any possible misunderstanding. For this reason, the instructions given above as to consultation should be interpreted in their widest sense. It may well happen that matters which in their initial stages appear to be of exclusively Irish interest may subsequently prove to be of concern to other parts of the Commonwealth. It would be well therefore to make it a general rule that it is better to inform the Ambassador of matters of apparently purely Irish concern rather than that he should not be consulted in a matter which might later have general interest.