Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to Michael MacWhite (Washington DC)
(459-17/176) (Copy)

With reference to minute of the 3rd instant No. M.P. 1008-21-29,¹ the Minister was very interested in your information concerning the possibilities of Tourist Extension and of an American company undertaking to build large hotels in this country.

It is, however, very necessary to avoid any trace of exaggeration in talking to those who may be interested. We cannot find any justification here for the figures you got from the Department of Commerce. Neither our tourist association, the Department of Industry and Commerce nor this Department can, on the most general calculation, get a higher figure for the amount spent by Americans in the Irish Free State in the year 1927 than £476,700. The Tourist Association estimate the average amount spent by Americans during a visit to this country at £50 per head and the above figure has been calculated on that basis. The Minister will be glad to learn how the Department of Commerce arrived at their figures.

He entirely approves of your non-committal attitude concerning the Government's part in business enterprises. Until the Americans are prepared to send over their own experts and take the usual risks there is no hope of success. The Government can only help like every other Government. It cannot take up the shares of the company. The people will take them up if the business is pushed like any other business. The Minister has no belief in offers which carry such special conditions. He believes that work of this character will only be undertaken by Americans of Irish descent who are ready to accept slower and smaller returns.

The rates position is as follows: Buildings completed before the 1st October 1930 will obtain a remission of two-thirds of any increase in the valuation for five years. There is no doubt that such legislation would be continued after that date if it was considered useful. But the general view here is that the question of rates is a relatively unimportant one in country areas, and even if full rates had to be paid it would not count as an obstacle in the minds of people who were really serious in their intentions.

The Minister hopes you will not consider him too sceptical about American plans in general, but he has had so much experience of dud offers from Americans that he cannot help feeling doubts until he sees a really businesslike proposition put before him.