William T. Cosgrave to Geoffrey Whiskard (London)
(Copy)¹

Dear Mr. Whiskard,

I have your letter of 13th.² I must say that it surprised me very much indeed. I understood you to say to me that there was no objection and would be none to the Registration of the Treaty but that a formal communication to this effect was not a matter which the Secretary of State would like to send. I may say that if I were to have inferred from you that there was a likelihood of objection to Registration I would not have undertaken the responsibility of moving the First Reading of the Bill on Tuesday.

Up to date of Mr. Henderson's³ and Mr. Thomas's visit we had understood that the Treaty was duly registered without objections.

In accordance with Article 18 of the Covenant it was obviously our duty to register the Treaty as the Treaty regulated the relations between two States members of the League. We accordingly submitted the Treaty for Registration as we informed you on 5th July and we are informed the Treaty was duly registered on the 11th July.

Failure to register might rightly have been regarded as a breach of the Covenant.

I understood that I pointed out to you how much this matter affected us here[,] that the Treaty was a matter between two Nations and as such was regarded by those who supported it.