My dear P.M.,

I send you reprint of Low's [1] cartoon-'Tales of the Dominions'-a
few copies of which the Editor of the 'Evening Standard' let me
have. I tried to get the original but the Prime Minister [2] got
in ahead of me. It was lying on a table when the Cabinet were
assembled two days ago and Hankey [3] tells me he heard Birkenhead
[4] say, 'You know, I don't like this fellow Low; he always makes
me look as if I had been found drunk'. Bridgeman [5] said, 'I
quite agree, and do you notice that he gives me a most unpleasant
overfed look too'.

You may have seen in the Press that half a million was given
anonymously to accumulate for a long term of years and then be
applied towards the extinction of the National Debt. The gift came
through Lord Revelstoke [6], the head of Baring Brothers. It was
followed by a few similar sporadic amounts towards the same end,
and there it stopped. It has occurred to me that it might be
possible to catch the popular imagination by the donation of a
series of comparatively small sums sent from various parts of the
Empire, say to the Editor of 'The Times', towards a fund for this
same object. I would be prepared to put up a certain amount to be
subscribed in the names of fictitious people in Australia and
England, accompanied by a few letters written in carefully chosen
terms. I know that I could induce a certain number of people in
Australia, and a few in both Canada and America, to do the same.

It is possible that one might start a movement that would grow-
especially if one worked the thing well by stressing the 'Empire'
side. I have spoken to Hankey about it and he is going to speak to
Winston. [7]

A peerage in this country has a definite commercial value and the
holders of peerages cannot be blamed for allowing human nature to
take its course, by capitalising on their asset. Lord Clarendon
[8], who was for a year Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for
Dominion Affairs, is a very pleasant fellow with a certain degree
of culture, but quite ineffective at affairs. After demonstrating
clearly to the world that he had no real ability at the Dominions
Office, he was translated to be Chairman of the British
Broadcasting Corporation at about 3,000 a year. Lord Thomson [9],
who got his peerage from the Labour Party, makes a good income by
writing for the press in this country and America, and by
lecturing in America. I think nobody would deny that his name is
the bait.

A peerage means the certainty of a permanent forum in the House of
Lords and it means the practical certainty of lucrative
Directorates. This country still loves a Lord and America adores
them.

When time has eliminated all trace of the gallant deed (or what
not) that gave rise to any particular peerage, then the succession
from father to son goes on without much comment, but when a
peerage has been awarded to individuals for some signal service to
the Crown-such as Haig [10], Kitchener [11], French [12]-then it
comes as something of a shock to hear of their sons or other
relatives going about embellished with the great man's hardly-won
title. It must make the new holder somewhat self-conscious.

I have not time to follow the deliberations of Parliament and
public bodies on the condition of agriculture in this country, but
one meets with one aspect of it that interests me. The value of
English agricultural land is such that the net return to the owner
of broad acres, who lets out his land to farmers, is much below
bank interest. I believe that this condition obtains over the
greater part of England and that it is no new situation but
existed before the War and, in varying degree, as far back as
people remember.

This position was understandable before the War, when the country
was largely held in big estates and when the dignity of being a
landowner compensated for the very low return. But the day of the
big landowners is passing, and the land (like everything else) may
be expected to pass into the hands of people who look on it as a
business proposition.

It is apparently true that, in general, the leasehold farmer now
pays a reasonable rental for this land and that not appreciably
more can be screwed out of him. What then is the solution? A
steady drop in the capital value of the land would seem to be the
only answer. But this is only one aspect of a very big question,
the consideration of which is outside my scope and time.

The same situation exists, to a lesser degree, in the Western
District of Victoria, where people have been willing in the past
to pay such a high price for land that the net return is, in many
cases, less than bank interest. This is not quite a parallel, as
there is but a limited area of this 'garden' pastoral land
available, and the demand for it by pastoralists who have made
money in less accessible and less pleasant parts of the
Commonwealth is sufficient to keep the price up-and rising-so that
a buyer, although he gets only a small return, can reasonably look
for a capital increase.

The above profound remarks have, I am afraid, little to do with
Foreign Affairs.

I forward, under separate cover, a large roll of coloured posters
produced by the Empire Marketing Board. Several of them are, I
think, very good indeed. When you have seen them, if you do not
want them personally, you might pass them to Henderson [13] for
the embellishment of the bare walls of the offices of the External
Affairs Department.

If you care for a mixture of psychology and philosophy in a
reasonable form, I should prescribe William McDougall's [14]
'Character and the Conduct of Life', which I think is exceedingly
good.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY