Kevin O'Higgins to Stanley Baldwin (London)
(Copy)

Dear Mr. Baldwin,

I wish to suggest to you the desirability of having a joint request made on behalf of your Government and ours to the Boundary Commissioners with reference to the publication of their award. We are engaged at present in anxiously considering whether an agreement can be arrived at, and one possible result of our discussions might be that the publication of any award would be neither necessary nor desirable. If the Boundary Commissioners are not definitely informed of this fact and proceed as a body entirely independent of the Governments concerned with the peaceful settlement of this matter the result may be deplorable. The 'Times' of today is responsible for the definite statement that in the opinion of your Government it is for the Commission alone to decide whether publication of the award should or should not be postponed. It is undoubted that the Commission may legally arrive at a decision in this matter without reference to the wishes of either or both Governments. But I am confident that they would agree to postpone publication if both our Governments requested them to do so in the interests of all parties. The Irish Free State Government has no desire needlessly to prolong the discussions which are now taking place, but these are hampered rather than assisted by having it either recognised or asserted that they may be terminated at any time by independent action of the Boundary Commissioners. You will, I think, agree with me that if our discussions were so terminated merely owing to an omission to intimate our views to the Boundary Commissioners such omission would be gravely criticised by all those who share our desire to find a peaceful and durable solution of our present difficulties.