Letter from Patrick McGilligan to Frederick A. Sterling (Dublin)
(E.A. 247/48) (Copy)

Excellency:

Your Excellency's Note of the 23rd June enclosing a revised draft of the proposed Treaty for the Renunciation of War has been carefully studied by the Government of the Irish Free State.

As I informed you in my Note of the 30th May,¹ the Government of the Irish Free State were prepared to accept unreservedly the draft Treaty proposed by your Government on the 13th April, holding, as they did, that neither their right of self-defence nor their commitments under the Covenant of the League of Nations were in any way prejudiced by its terms.

The draft Treaty as revised is equally acceptable to the Government of the Irish Free State, and I have the honour to inform you that they are prepared to sign it in conjunction with such other Governments as may be so disposed. As the effectiveness of the proposed Treaty as an instrument for the suppression of war depends to a great extent upon its universal application, the Government of the Irish Free State hope that the Treaty may meet with the approbation of the other Governments to whom it has been sent and that it may subsequently be accepted by all the other Powers of the World.

Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurance of my highest consideration.