Volume 6 1939~1941


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 396 NAI DFA 205/4

Code telegram from the Department of External Affairs to William Warnock (Berlin)
(No. 21) (Personal) (Copy)

Dublin, 16 January 1941

Several German and German-controlled stations have recently broadcast quotations from Swedish Press saying that Germany is determined to counter intended British invasion of Ireland by action similar to that taken in Belgium and Norway. Statements to this effect were broadcast from Bremen in English at 12.30 p.m. on 9th instant, and from Breslau at 23.30 on 8th instant. A broadcast from Brussels on 8th inst. devoted great attention to British military preparations in Six Counties.

From our point of view, such broadcasts, however well intentioned, do more harm than good. They are used by British and American propaganda as proof of German intention to invade us, and this exercises unsettling effect on people here and Irish-American opinion. Please express these views in proper quarters with a view to discouraging any similar references to Ireland in future.