John O'Byrne to Desmond FitzGerald (Dublin)
(2862/24) (Copy)

I have received your draft of the proposed reply to the Despatch from the Colonial Office of the 4th day of June, 1924.¹

The original ratification of the Protocol without consultation with, and advice from, the Executive Council of the Irish Free State seems to me to have been wrong, and this is in substance admitted in the Despatch of the 22nd day of January, 1924. ² The circumstances of the case, however, were exceptional and are not likely to occur again. This being so and there being really no question of principle involved, I see no good reason why the course suggested in paragraph 8 of the Despatch of the 22nd day of January, 1924, should not be adopted.

The alternative course is suggested in your draft despatch. That course will probably not be adopted by the British Government, and I do not think that any useful purpose would be served by asking for a separate ratification on behalf of the Irish Free State unless we are prepared, in the event of a refusal, to follow up the matter of repudiating, so far as the Irish Free State is concerned, the ratification that has already been made.