Neutral Against Whom?

Very flatly, the U.S. asked touchily neutral Eire to take the Allied side in World War II. Very flatly, Eire said no. That much the Irish, American and British man in the street learned last week. There was only a juicy hint of the scene that was acted when Washington's demand reached the proper desk in Dublin.

Presumably, peppery U.S. Minister David Gray (uncle, by marriage, to Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt) stepped down a corridor in Dublin's Leinster House, entered Prime Minister Eamon de Valera's office. Presumably, gaunt, U.S.-born "Dev" scanned the note handed him, hopped good & mad from his chair, sputtering more sparks than the fire on his hearth.

But officialdom would disclose only the staid, though strong, language of the U.S. note and Dev's counternote:

Washington: Eire's neutrality operates "in favor of the Axis powers."

Dev: No--Eire's neutrality is of "uniform friendly character" toward the United Nations.

Washington: Axis agents, working through the German legation and the Japanese consulate in Dublin, "enjoy almost unrestricted opportunity" for spying on Allied troop movements in Britain.

Dev: There are only twelve such suspects in Eire; they are in prison. "It is doubtful if any other country can show such a record of . . . vigilance."

Washington: "We request . . . the recall of German and Japanese representatives in Ireland. . . . The lives of thousands of United Nations soldiers are at stake."

Dev: "Impossible." It would be "the first step toward war."

Washington: "Your security and economy depend . . . on the United Nations."

Dev: "Eire's stand is the logical consequence of Irish history and of the forced partition of national territory."

Plainly Dev and Eire had not budged from their traditional Anglophobic bomb shelter. Having dispatched his note, Dev mobilized Eire's army (30,000 men), alerted the militia (200,000 men), ordered bridges mined, airfields double-guarded against an imagined invasion threat.

Only one concession would budge Dev and Eire: British blessing on a forcible union of Catholic Eire and Protestant Northern Ireland. But Britain was less than ever in a mood to hand over its fighting comrades of North Ireland to uncooperative Eire. Instead, London sent Dublin a note supporting the U.S., ordered a strict curb on travel between Eire and Britain. Under study might be the withdrawal of other long-granted concessions: shipments to Eire of Canadian wheat, British coal, U.S. oil.

This flow of supply keeps Eire's shaky economy going. It also feeds and heats Nazi Minister Eduard Hempel's big staff on Dublin's Northumberland Road. And it fuels Jap Consul Fetsuya Beppu's auto on its way to the local golf course. Dev's people and guests were in danger of becoming cold, hungry pedestrians.

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