My dear P.M.,

The Zinovief [1] debate in the House of Commons resulted in a
Government victory. It is thought that the Labour Party has
damaged itself by the debate. I send the full Hansard report in
another letter and enclose to you, with this letter, the kernel of
the whole affair, the bombshell that Baldwin [2] produced in the
shape of a letter to him from Mr. im Thurn [3] who got the
Zinovief letter from a Communist and sent it to the Foreign Office
and to the Daily Mail. I have a feeling that there is more in the
story than has come out, but it seems to have stifled the
Opposition comment and curiosity, and everyone is telling his
neighbour that the subject is now closed and done with.

I mentioned Andre Siegfried to you a few weeks ago, with reference
to his writings, 'America Comes of Age' and others. [4] Since then
I have been in communication with him in Paris by letter, having
been introduced by a mutual friend. He says that he has been twice
in Australia and that after his second visit (in 1918) he began to
write something but that it did not come to anything. He says that
my suggestion of a study of Australia is 'tempting'. He suggests
that we meet when I am next in Paris, which I will certainly make
a point of doing.

Sir George Buchanan [5] writes an article in the current 'National
Review' in which he summarises his Report to the Commonwealth
Government on Transport in Australia. It adds nothing to what he
said in the Report itself.

A very badly-written article by Michael Terry [6] in the current
'Empire Review'-'An impression of Northern Australia'-reminds me
that I heard many hard things about this young man when I was in
Broome last October. To euphemise the general run of the comment,
he apparently allowed himself to be carried away by his
imagination in his descriptions of places that he claims to have
been to in the Northern Territory and the Kimberleys. From what I
saw of him in London two years ago, I should say that he had some
ability, great assurance but only a moderate endowment of other
necessary qualities.

I think McDougall [7] said that he had sent you the 'Times'
leader, 'Morals for Ministers', but in case not and so that you
don't miss it, I send another copy herewith. It is plainer
speaking than the 'Times' usually allows itself.

I had a silent score and a subsequent smile at a letter from
Colonel Harrison [8] (of the Melbourne Barracks) to Colonel Plant
[9], an Australian officer attached temporarily to the War Office,
that the latter showed me yesterday. It was to the effect that at
a recent meeting of the Council of Defence (I think), you had
produced a telegram 'from an unknown source' that had had the
effect of postponing the spending of any considerable amount of
money on the re-arming of our Coast defences. Plant (whom I know
well) asked me with a shrewd look if I knew who had sent that
telegram, to which I gave a diplomatic reply and changed the
subject!

Since writing the above, Major Rowe [10] (Military Liaison Officer
at Australia House) has shown me a similar letter from General
Chauvel [11], in which he takes him to task for not having sent
the information that I sent you, to the Defence Department, with
regard to the attitude that the various parts of the Empire were
taking up regarding Coast Defence. There is evidently a mild
'situation', which may be a suitable opportunity to establish the
principle, vis-a-vis the Defence Department, of the man in my
appointment keeping you informed of matters of political
importance as regards Defence that arise in the Committee of
Imperial Defence. I have telegraphed you in this connection.

I understand from Henderson [12] that you are not in favour of a
separate registered telegraphic address for the External Affairs
Department. I suggested this when I was in Australia as a means of
ensuring that my telegrams (on possibly confidential and delicate
subjects) reach either yourself or Henderson without going through
intermediate hands for whom they were not intended. An example of
a comparatively unimportant nature happened recently when my
telegram to you about de Bavay's Belgian decoration apparently
went the usual course through the Prime Minister's Department and
the reply over your name came back through Australia House. The
whole business became known to many people here and presumably in
Canberra. Unless you feel strongly on this matter of a separate
telegraphic address for the External Affairs Department (I suggest
'AUSTFORAFS, CANBERRA'), I suggest that it would at least stop the
possibility of such leaks, and that possibly you might reconsider
the matter.

I've read lately the latest anonymous book of lively comment on
living people-'The Feet of the Young Men' by 'Janitor'. [13] It is
clever, biting and, in parts, mildly scandalous, and so is sure of
a market. It must have been written by someone who at least has
been in high places-probably an ex-Private Secretary. Rumour says
it is by Hore-Belisha, a young Liberal M.P. [14] Surely an
Official (Social) Secrets Act should be enacted to stop this sort
of thing, however entertaining it may be. 'Janitor's 'raw material
is Lady Astor [15], George Lloyd [16], Irwin [17], Philip Kerr
[18], Lionel Curtis [19], Oswald Mosley [20], Ormsby-Gore [21],
Walter Elliot [22] and half a dozen others. With these as raw
material, you can imagine that the finished goods are entertaining
when brightly and frankly treated.

I have also read the sixth series of H.L. Mencken's 'Prejudices'.

As you may know, he is the 'young man in a hurry' whose self-
appointed mission is to expose the crudities and anachronisms of
latter day America, or, as he calls it, the 'Babbitt Warren'. He
has written many books (amongst which 'Defence of Women' I have
read and which, of course, is an attack on them) and is Editor of
the American 'Mercury', the bible of the advanced crowd of the
intellectual acrobats. His writing usually consists of a quite
unbridled snapping and biting at every established American
institution from the Constitution to the Volstead Act. As an
alternative to letting off vocal steam oneself against the die-
hard stupidities and snobberies of the day, I know of no better
pabulum than Mencken. [23] You sit back and he does it all for
you.

It is better to buy milk than keep a cow-and better to read
Mencken than get inflamed yourself.

And to make up for past deficiencies, I have been goaded into
reading Samuel Butler's 'Way of All Flesh', and was delighted with
it.

There is a lot of truth in a headline in the Paris 'Matin' last
week-'Should not the organisation of the week-end be considered at
Geneva? For two days out of seven England is afflicted with
international paralysis.'

I lunched last week with Here Ruthven (Colonel the Hon. Sir
Alexander Hore Ruthven, V.C., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.), Governor
designate of South Australia, who leaves for Australia in a few
days' time. He was Military Secretary to Lord Dudley [24] in
Australia in 1908 and was detailed to go round Australia with Lord
Kitchener [25] for four months. He is a good type and should go
down well, not too intellectual nor too sporting, nor too anything
else, and an easy and pleasant fellow to talk to. His military
record, of course, is first class. His wife is Irish.

John Sanderson [26] has just told me of Mrs. Oakley's [27] naive
remark to him in 1923: 'Is it possible for a Free Trader to be
honest, Mr. Sanderson?' To which John replied: 'Not only possible,
Madam, but indispensable.'

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY