Confidential Report from Timothy A. Smiddy to Patrick McGilligan (Dublin)

Mr. Baldwin greeted and cordially welcomed me to London. He asked me how long I was in the United States and what I thought of Sir Esme Howard, and if he were held in high esteem and liked in Washington. I informed him that he was regarded with respect and esteem. He also enquired how Massey was doing. I informed him that Mr. Massey put Canada on the map in Washington, and that he was a charming, interesting and helpful colleague.

With reference to New York, he said that it was one of the most unique cities of its kind in the world, and struck him as being more of a foreign city than of an American city in consequence of the number of Jews and southern Europeans that one met and heard conversing in their own languages, and that they must present a very great and difficult problem to the Government. I told him that their children became very quickly Americanised, and lost in a short time the knowledge of the language of their fathers. He agreed that an interesting feature of America was the manner in which foreigners became so quickly naturalised in that country.

He said it was very striking, the number of Irish who took part in the Revolution, and, as far as he could make out, they were mostly Presbyterians of the north of Ireland who went to America in large numbers on account of the harsh way they were dealt with by the British Government, and were actuated by very strong enmity to Great Britain. I told him that a Mr. Galeway, Speaker of the House of Congress in Philadelphia, stated before a Special Committee of the British House of Commons in 1782 that 50 per cent of the Army of Washington were Irish born, and 25 per cent Scotch and English, and 25 per cent American born. He said this was very surprising and asked me if I knew what percentage thereof was north of Ireland. I told him that I did not know.

He asked me my opinion of Mr. Hoover.¹ I told him that I had the pleasure of knowing him personally: he is a man of very serious mind, who studies his problems minutely and has belief in his own ability to solve them: that he is taciturn unless a subject arises in which he is personally interested. He asked me if Mr. and Mrs. Hoover were very good friends. I told him that they were wonderful comrades from the time they were in College together, and that she was in every way helpful and was a woman of great charm and most interesting in her conversation. He said he never met Al Smith² but he would like very much to do so as he strikes him as being a man of very attractive personality.

I asked Mr. Baldwin if the condition of trade and industry in England was improving. He said that the heads of British industry were now waking up 'after scratching their heads for some time', and were commencing to organise industry in such a manner as to enable them to compete effectively with their foreign competitors: they were recapturing foreign trade. He said the electrical, engineering and shipbuilding industries were making good. He was of the opinion that British manufacturers when they get going have no equal.

I asked him about the Unemployed problem, and if it were in process of becoming less serious. He said that he hoped improvement would set in, but that there is one aspect of the problem not usually mentioned, namely the increasing number of women, as compared to men in industry and commerce. He was of the opinion that there must be increased emigration.

I asked him if he ever visited Ireland. He said his visit was confined to two days, when he went to discuss with Mr. Craig³ in Belfast the problem of the Boundary. He arrived in Belfast on a Sunday morning when it was raining; but he hoped to see it under more favourable conditions.

He referred to the tragic death of the late Mr. Kevin O'Higgins, and said he was a man of outstanding ability and character.

He spoke in very high terms of Mr. Andrew Mellon, Secretary of the United States Treasury, saying that he was one of the finest Americans he ever met and that his negotiations with him on the Debt Settlement revealed him to be a man of judgment, quick decision and trustworthiness.