Sir, – The anti-Semitic virulence in Charles Bewley's report is "unique" among the diplomatic dispatches, according to the exhibition curator Christian Dirks ("Disgraceful' Irish report on Kristallnacht goes on display", World News, November 9th). Bewley was appointed to Ireland's mission to Berlin in September 1933, but what is extraordinary is the fact that in January 1922 he was involved in an incident at the "Tauenzien Palace" in Berlin which exposed his extreme anti-Semitic views. He had arrived in Berlin in early December 1921, being appointed as Irish trade representative and used abusive and filthy language when Robert Briscoe's name was mentioned. He was chucked out of the "Tauenzien Palace" by the proprietors and forbidden to ever enter their premises again.
According to my mother’s cousin, Nancy Wyse Power, who was part of the Irish team in Berlin, Mr Briscoe was there for the purposes of purchasing arms. She thought it better not to make any contact with him as it appeared to her better that the open and underground movements should not come together. She says that Mr Bewley had an office of his own and was bitterly anti-Semitic. She remembered William Binchy, who was a student at the time in Germany, saying it was an extraordinary thing in a country where Jews were so influential that the waiting-room of a foreign trade representative should be filled with anti-Jewish publications. Mr Binchy himself became Irish representative for a short time in 1929. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough, Dublin 7.