William T. Cosgrave to Winston Churchill (London)

Dear Mr. Churchill,

I am sorry that there has been such delay in answering your letter of the 8th¹ instant, but we were so busy in getting the Parliamentary business through that I was unable to get a chance of discussing the matter with Mr. Blythe. I have just now had a conversation with him on the subject, and I gather that his representatives were over in London discussing with your Inland Revenue Authorities the settlement of the Double Income Tax along the lines of adopting residence as the future basis of assessment and that they only returned here on Friday last.

Mr. Blythe will lose no time in considering the report of their discussion and he hopes to be able to let you have his views at the latest by the first week of January when he will also deal with the other suggestions put forward in the Treasury Memorandum. I may say that he is not quite happy in regard to some of these suggestions but I have no doubt that at the further meeting in London which will be necessary these can all be settled in a spirit of mutual accommodation.

May I take the opportunity of thanking you for the very valuable contribution you personally made towards the solution of the problems which confronted us in our recent Conferences and of congratulating you on the successful issue which will I trust, redound to the mutual advantage of Gt. Britain and Ireland alike.