740.00111A Combat Areas/23
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
The Irish Minister68a came in to see me today, at his request. He had been asked to discuss informally the question of the including of Ireland within the combat zone. His people were of the opinion that Irish ports are very safe; Galway, for instance, is as safe as any in the world. I said that we all of us regretted having to include any neutral country in the combat area, but had to be guided by considerations of actual danger. The Minister said that he understood we had had a chart of actual sinkings and I replied that that was true. He said he understood there were not any sinkings off the Irish coast. I said that [Page 705] there had been relatively few sinkings in that area but that we had to consider not only what had happened but what was likely to happen, in determining danger; and that there was very real reason to fear that shipments to Ireland would be taken to be for trans-shipment to Great Britain and that in consequence the Germans would intensify the warfare in that area.
The Minister then asked whether an agreement by the Irish not to trans-ship goods to England might not be a factor which would induce us to change our decision. I said I would be glad to take up the matter; but that I thought that the Minister ought to understand our natural dislike of getting this government involved in rationing arrangements, or any other similar agreements. We would not, for instance, care to be put in the position of assisting a blockade. I said I thought the Minister might count on every sympathy of this government with other neutral countries. We had, indeed, the distinct feeling that wherever possible inter-neutral trade should be kept open. We were, however, bound by the spirit as well as the letter of the Neutrality Act.
The Minister then turned to another subject. Certain students, he said, had completed two or three years of their work in Ireland and wished to go back but were denied passports. Could anything be done about it? I said that we had been withholding passports for European points unless there were impelling necessity, and that we had not included study as impelling necessity. The Minister said he thought Ireland was certainly no more dangerous than Switzerland, Scandinavia, or other similar places. I pointed out that we had denied passports for some of these very countries. I added, however, that I personally believed that the matter ought to be re-examined with a view to determining the actual danger in respect of various neutral countries; and that I would be glad to have the matter re-examined to see whether, in the light of circumstances, a different conclusion could be reached. There was, I agreed, a real distinction between neutral countries and belligerent countries—depending always, of course, on the likelihood that the neutral might be involved.
- Robert Brennan.↩