Volume 8 1945~1948


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 95 NAI DFA 307/4

Minute by Frederick H. Boland

Dublin, 15 March 1946

I asked Mr. Benzinger1 to come and see me on the 15th February in connection with his notes of the 23rd January and the 4th February.

I told Mr. Benzinger that we preferred to answer his enquiries verbally rather than in writing because we had not yet replied in writing to the démarche we had received on this subject from the Allied Governments. I drew Mr. Benzinger's attention to Emergency Powers (No. 335) Order2 and explained to him that, as owing to the Allied controls and censorship, no Axis gold, funds or other assets had been able to enter this country during the war, the practical application of the Order was limited to German credits which existed here at the time of the outbreak of the war, and to that extent, as Mr. Sumner Welles3 had hinted, our position was quite different from that of Sweden and Switzerland. I told Mr. Benzinger that the Order applied only to credits of which the holder was a resident in Germany.

1 Dr. Charles Benzinger, Swiss Chargé d'Affaires in Dublin.

2 Emergency Powers (No. 335) Order of 1944, deals with the collection of debts from Irish citizens due to German nationals resident in Ireland.

3 Sumner Welles (1892-1961), United States Under Secretary of State (1937-43).