Your 211 of 4th September [1], Uranium.

Sir John Anderson [2] who is advising the Prime Minister and with
whom the High Commissioner took up the matter finds it difficult
to give full and satisfactory answers to the questions raised. He
fully appreciates the Commonwealth Government's desire for
information which would enable them to evaluate their resources.

The technical possibilities are still so little known, however,
and are changing so much that it is impossible to say definitely
what quantities of uranium will be significant in a few years
time. Based on present knowledge, he can say with some assurance
that it seems unlikely that a country will be able in the near
future to embark on the use of uranium for either defence or for
commercial purposes with any hope of success unless it has at its
disposal some hundreds of tons of uranium oxide. On this basis he
adds:

'Your Government might feel that it would be extravagant to
proceed with any development of Mount Painter. On the other hand
it would obviously be in the interest of Australia and Empire
defence generally if the Government would make a point of
collecting any information coming to hand, pointing to the
discovery in Australia of deposits on a more considerable scale
than those at present suspected.'
He imagines that prospectors and mining concerns generally will be
energetic in their search for these materials now that there has
been so much publicity and it is important that the knowledge of
their discoveries should get into the right hands quickly.

DUNCAN