I was delighted to receive in last mail yesterday your letter of
the 24th May [1] and also a news letter which is extremely
comprehensive. I have also now read the debate in the House of
Representatives on May 9th [2] and agree with you that it was
particularly good and encouraging. I notice, however, on page 193
that there is no reference to this little office as a source of
information. Does this mean that my frequent reports go into the
wastepaper basket?!!! I have also noted that in the various
references to the establishment of a Legation here there has been
little reference to the fact that there is already an Australian
representative in the Embassy here. Is Curtin [3], for instance,
aware of that fact? I was particularly glad to notice the
references by the Prime Minister [4] to the United States, and
only wish they had received a little more publicity here, but I am
afraid the American press is not very well represented in
Australia, and, with the exception of the New York Times, the
papers seldom carry Australian news. There is no doubt, however,
that there is a great deal of interest in Australia here in every
way, and the Pavilion at the World's Fair, which is altogether
excellent, is certainly, as you anticipated, helping considerably.

I shall be glad to hear from time to time how the proposal for the
Legation here is getting on. I wrote to Hodgson on May 5th [5]
suggesting various points that have to be considered. As far as
procedure is concerned I imagine the first stage is to ascertain
formally that the opening of a Legation here would be acceptable
to the U.S.A. Government; purely as a matter of form as I know the
reply will be to welcome it but, of course, a necessary matter of
form.

There is one thing you will have to arrange when a Legation is
established here, and that is a supply of information. In London
and here, as you know, we have access to the sections of the
Foreign Office print and all the Dominions Office telegrams, but
unless some special arrangement can be made, our Legation will not
have any of these sources of information and so would be entirely
dependent on the press for its news. There are various
alternatives-sending a weekly or bi-weekly telegram to our
Missions abroad from Canberra, trying to arrange for a copy of the
print to be made available to it, arranging for the office in
London to keep it and any other Mission advised by sending
paraphrases of Dominions Office information telegrams. You are in
a much better position to think of a suitable arrangement than I
am, so I merely call your attention to it as one of the things to
be considered.

F. KEITH OFFICER