My dear P.M.,

Batterbee [1] rather surprised me by saying lately that he was
very glad that Sir Harry McGowan [2] had dropped out of the Big
Four. [3] He says that, in his opinion, Sir Harry McGowan, Sir
Alfred Mond [4] and Sir Otto Niemeyer [5] all preach a dangerous
financial doctrine from the Imperial point of view in that they
think that 'as long as you get the money, it doesn't matter where
it comes from'. It is rather an abstruse economic point, to my
mind, to decide whether it is better to get (say) American money
now for the development of Australian public works and industry,
or to wait until such time as sufficient money is available from
Imperial sources.

This brings me to a subject that I have often meant to ask you
about. Would you welcome American money for the development (say)
of Papua and the New Guinea mandate? Possibly you may say 'Yes, as
long as it is not in an amount that would swamp our own
endeavours'. But I can well imagine that unless it were tackled on
a big scale the exploitation of this new and untrodden country
would offer but little attraction to foreign or any other capital.

You probably will not want to answer this conundrum in explicit
terms, but I would be interested to have your general reaction to
it. Your reply, if you want to give one at all, will no doubt take
into account the effect of such a move on the League of Nations
Permanent Mandates Commission, as well as on domestic politics in
Australia.

I have no reason in asking you this other than that it is a
possible eventuality that one may come into contact with at some
time or other.

I have brought forth my mouse in the shape of a letter to you on
liaison. I give myself no little credit for restraint in having
spelled it with a small 'l' throughout.

It will have achieved its purpose if it directs your mind for a
short time to possible (I do not say probable) lacunae in our
inter-departmental arrangements.

I have come across a curious case of dual interests lately in the
person of Humbert Wolfe [6], who between the hours of 10 a.m. and
6 p.m. is an efficient, high official of the Ministry of Labour
and deals most expeditiously and effectively with the very
material problems of that office. For the rest of the 24 hours he
is an obscurantist poet, well and favourably known throughout the
literary world for his volumes of most obscure and, to me,
unintelligible poetry. As I meet him, he has a clear mind, lucid
speech and very long hair-but I toiled through one of his books of
poems lately and came out the other end without having the least
idea of what he was driving at-and I got Tom Jones [7] to admit
the same thing too.

I have recently come across a most delightful book, 'The Practice
of Diplomacy', being a translation of an old French book of 1716
called 'On the manner of negotiating with Princes', with a
foreword by Sir Frederick Whyte. [8] I started to summarise its
precepts for you, but gave it up as any such compression would be
too bulky. I will send you copy by this or the next mail, and I
think I can promise that you will enjoy an hour's reading of it.

It is, as the original author says, 'a sketch of the qualities and
duties of the diplomatist'.

I had Sir William Clark, Hankey [9] and Harding [10] to meet Sir
Charles Nathan [11] at lunch yesterday. Nathan pumped Australian
1932 Exhibition into Clark, who goes to Canada in September as
British High Commissioner and who may be of use in securing
Canadian co-operation. I thought it a good thing to have Hankey
and Harding too as they may be of use to Nathan later in other
connections.

Sir William Clark will communicate from Ottawa with His Majesty's
Government through the Dominions Office. He hopes to have a staff
of two -one man from each of the Dominions and Foreign Offices. He
has, I am afraid, been rather too long a civil servant to shine at
Ottawa, particularly vis-a-vis Phillips [12], the American
Minister.

My dinner party for Sir Hugo Hirst [13] comes off in a few days.

It will consist of Amery [14], Hirst, Clark [15], Malcolm [16] and
possibly Duckham [17] (to complete the Big Four), Nivison [18],
Sanderson [19], Andrew Williamson [20], E. V. Reid (Dalgety's)
[21] and Sir Charles Nathan.

Princess Ingrid [22] seems on short acquaintance to be an
attractive and intelligent girl, but with all the naivete of 18.

We were at a dance at the Swedish Legation given for her lately.

Winston [23] is nimble-minded to a degree, but I suspect his
latest shaft of wit being a prepared impromptu. In a debate on the
Rating Scheme he was taken to task for including the Breweries in
the list of industries that would get relief. He was asked the
rather stupid question of whether the price of beer would be
reduced in consequence. He replied that that depended on many
things over which he had no control-whether the grade of beer was
to be altered and whether more beer was drunk-'in fact on the
gravity of the beer and the levity of the consumer'!

I asked Lord Cecil if I could call on him to talk about Dominion
consultation. He had referred in the House of Lords to the
unsatisfactory nature of the present system. I had a long talk to
him this morning. When I arrived the first thing he said was 'Have
you come to abuse me too?', rather in the aggrieved 'et tu Brute'
manner! [24]

He talked freely and was quite interesting, although not
particularly convincing. He said that now that he was out of
office, he could be quite open and speak his mind to me. His ideas
in brief are as follows. They were clothed in more delicate
language but this is what was in his mind.

He thinks the present position of the British Government an
intolerable one, whereby they cannot move a finger in
international affairs without consulting the Dominions. And, to
make it worse, the Dominions are apparently so indifferent to the
necessities of the situation that they leave all the burden of
consultation to H.M.G. They send indifferent High Commissioners
and, on the whole, make but little effort to get to grips with the
international situation so that they can give quick, effective
replies. H.M.G. is continually being belittled in the eyes of the
world by reason of the fact that before she can pronounce herself,
she has to admit to the world that she has to go into consultation
all round with the Dominions.

Australia and New Zealand, he admitted, were much the most
helpful. Canada practically took the impossible attitude that she
would not consult but she complained bitterly if she were not
consulted. Ireland was of not much importance as she was not
really an international entity.

His solution was a real recognition of the fact that the Dominions
were international units in that they were independent and had to
be brought round to H.M.G.'s point of view. They were therefore,
he thought, capable of being regarded as countries with which
Great Britain was in friendly diplomatic relations, and, as such,
should be dealt with direct by the Foreign Office. He advocated
the Dominions Office being taken over as a Department of the
Foreign Office and looked after by an Assistant Minister for
Foreign Affairs. But he said that he had been without any support
in the Cabinet in these ideas. He thought it would come about
eventually, but he did not think for some time.

A corollary to this must be a recognition on the part of the
Dominions that they had a definite responsibility in the matter.

They really ought to send more effective representatives to
London. He still thought that there should be a member of Dominion
Cabinets in London, say for a tour of duty of two years at a time;

not on the principle of being able to consult their Governments,
but as a more authoritative voice. The Foreign Secretary (or,
under his scheme, the Assistant Foreign Secretary) should see them
all at least once a week.

Another necessary function of his proposed Assistant Foreign
Secretary would be to take charge of the Foreign Office when the
Foreign Secretary was at Geneva, as he was for some many weeks out
of each year, during which time, under the present arrangements,
there was nobody of Ministerial responsibility in charge.

I went to a Government lunch today at which Sir Samuel Hoare [25]
presided and Amery and 40 others were present, to do honour to
Wilkins [26] and Eielson. [27] Wilkins gave a brief but very good
and restrained account of the expedition. He is lunching with me
next week to meet some people that he wants to get in touch with.

I have found out from Tokyo that Major Capes [28] is still persona
ingrata to the Japanese Government. I wrote privately as it seemed
to me that his part in the escapade was one that might conceivably
be officially forgotten, but apparently not. He is one of the very
few people we have who has most at least of the requisite
qualifications for employment in the Far East.

I have written rather a long letter by this mail on the United
States in relation to the problem of Naval Strength, which I think
it would be worth while your reading.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY