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Prologue to peacekeeping: Ireland and the Saar, 1934–5

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy*
Affiliation:
School of Modern History, Queen’s University of Belfast
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Extract

A list from September 1939 of files destroyed by the Department of External Affairs in the invasion scares of 1939–40 contains an intriguing reference to the possibility of dispatching Irish military forces to the Saarland on the Franco-German border in the winter of 1934–5. There they would serve as part of an international peacekeeping force while a plebiscite on the status of the territory was carried out under League of Nations auspices in January 1935. The context of this article is the events surrounding the creation of the peacekeeping force in December 1934.

That the Irish Free State should be mentioned as a possible contributor to the international force for the Saar is an illustration of the emerging mediatory role the state was to adopt after its three-year term on the League Council concluded in September 1933. With an Irish diplomat, Sean Lester, seconded to League service as High Commissioner in Danzig from 1934, and with Irish-born Edward Phelan, Assistant Director of the International Labour Organisation, being mentioned as a possible contender for the League post of Deputy Secretary-General in 1933, and with Eamon de Valera rising in importance as an international statesman and League supporter, Ireland’s involvement in the Saar was both an illustration and a result of the state’s prominent position in the League in the early to mid-1930s.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 119 , May 1997 , pp. 420 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1997

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References

1 N.A.I., Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Geneva Embassy, S 1/3.

2 Lester held the post of Deputy Secretary-General from 1937 to 1940 and Secretary-General from 1940 to the League’s dissolution in 1946.

3 See James, Alan, Peacekeeping in international politics (London, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar for an account of the historical development of peacekeeping. Pp 75–80 deal with international rule in the Saar between 1920 and 1935.

4 Irish involvement in peacekeeping to 1980 is dealt with in a rather gung-ho fashion by Smith, Raymond in Under the blue flag (Naas, 1980)Google Scholar and in McDonald, Henry, Irbatt (Dublin, 1994)Google Scholar. An Cosantóir (the magazine of the Irish defence forces) regularly publishes articles dealing with the many and varied peacekeeping duties undertaken by the forces.

5 Walshe to Cremine, 20 June 1934 (N.A.I., DFA, 27/77).

6 Minutes of discussions held in Prime Minister’s room at the House of Commons, 3 Dec. 1934 (P.R.O., CAB 27/53).

7 See Hill, C.J., ‘Great Britain and the Saar plebiscite of 13 January 1935’ in Journal of Contemporary History, ix (1974), pp 121-42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Cremins to Walshe, 6 Dec. 1934 (N.A.I., DFA, 27/72).

9 Minute by Sargent, 7 Dec. 1934 (P.R.O., FO 371/17728/C8389/74/18).

10 Minute, n.d. (P.R.O., DO 35/397/12/11111/332).

11 Price to Wiseman, 12 Sept. 1934 (ibid., DO 35/185/11/6942/lA/l).

12 Ibid.

13 Cremins to Walshe, 10 Dec. 1934 (N.A.I., DFA, 27/72).

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Cremins to Walshe, 22 June 1935 (N.A.I., DFA, 27/95). Respectively, the French foreign secretary, the Russian foreign minister, the League Secretary-General, the former British foreign secretary, the Australian delegate, the Spanish representative.

17 Cockram to Wiseman, 7 Sept. 1935 (P.R.O., DO 35/186/1/6942/2/19).

18 Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin, appear to have no papers relating to the Saar, and there are no Department of Defence papers in the files relating to the Saar in the Department of External Affairs Archives.

19 N.A.I., Cabinet Minutes, G2/12 C7/300 (18 Aug. 1936).

20 For further details see Kennedy, Michael, Ireland and the League of Nations, 1919–1946 (Dublin, 1996)Google Scholar.

21 Public statutes of the Oireachtas (1923), p. 1207: League of Nations (Guarantees) Act, 1923 [No. 41].