My dear P.M.,

MOND INDUSTRIAL ENQUIRY [1]

Reference your telegram of 17th February, asking for particulars
of organisation and agenda of above. The information contained in
my two telegrams (of 17th and 20th February) was put together
after consultation with Mr. Conway Davies, Secretary of the
Employers' side of the Conference (and normally one of Sir Alfred
Mond's Private Secretaries), and from Mr. Leggett [2] of the
Ministry of Labour, whose function it is to watch the Mond
Conference from the Government point of view.

I thought it best to balance the natural optimism of Mond's man by
some of the cold-blooded scepticism of the Government official.

I have nothing useful to add to my two telegrams.

At one of my interviews with Conway Davies, a Mr. Norman Wyld was
present, and, as a result, he has sent me, at my request, a letter
and other papers descriptive of the organisation that he
represents-The Industrial Institute, copies of which I enclose, as
you may wish to pass the information to your Industrial Conference
[3] to enquire whether the formation of an Organisation on similar
lines would be useful in Australia.

I find from my informant at the Ministry of Labour that their view
is that the organisation would be a most useful one, that it has
very great possibilities but that with Mr. Wyld at the organising
centre, it is, in fact, an ineffective body. Wyld apparently is
not acceptable to a lot of people in industry-both employers and
the Trades Union people. The Ministry of Labour say that the
papers with reference to it are well worth while sending out to
you, as the idea of such an organisation is good. But they stress
the point that any such machine needs as Director or Secretary a
man who is generally trusted and accepted by both sides.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY