My dear P.M.,

Sir William Glasgow [1] had a useful talk to Hankey [2] at my
house at lunch last week. It did something, I think, to clear Sir
William's mind on the subject of Coast Defence.

Hankey emphasised that he thought the Commonwealth Government had
taken the correct course in delaying their decision as to Coast
Defence [3], but said the Air Force only contended now that they
should take the place of the heavy gun (over 6"): therefore up to
6" the position was not affected. The experiments this summer had
been very interesting but would need to be continued. One aspect
that had emerged was that although the ship was screened by smoke
from shore batteries, an aeroplane could see through this smoke
and might even be able to use it as a shield to itself in
attacking-but further experiments would be needed.

Sir William Glasgow said he favoured protecting Sydney and
Newcastle in particular, and probably Darwin, by Coast Defences,
and he would be content to leave the rest to the Air Force. Hankey
thought that Albany should be added as a fortified collecting
point for convoys.

Sir William Glasgow said the drawing of comparisons between South
Africa and Australia was misleading. Australia was free from South
Africa's internal problems but nearer to potential trouble
centres. Sir Maurice Hankey agreed.

I am arranging for Hankey to see Sir William Glasgow again and I
am going to ask him to put down on paper a short aide-memoire on
the various subjects of importance that they will have covered,
copies of which I will give Sir William and send you.

Large scale air manoeuvres are in progress all this week in the
shape of attempts on the part of 'Eastland' to raid London and
efforts to ward off the attacks on the part of 'Westland'. Over
300 machines are involved and the manoeuvres go on all night from
6 p.m. to 9 a.m. every night this week. All that London sees is an
apparently confused collection of machines from time to time from
8,000 to 15,000 feet up. The exercises, as in the case of most big
scale manoeuvres, are useful for giving the higher air command
practice in moving large groups. They are also probably useful in
training ground observers, listeners and the Air Force signal
service. I had an interesting hour in the control room at the Air
Ministry last night. This is the centre to which all observers'
and umpires' reports are telephoned and telegraphed. The
movements, numbers and heights of all machines engaged, raiders
and repellers, are indicated on a large table map and the wind
direction and strength at various heights and atmospheric
conditions generally indicated on another big map. In war some
such centre as this would be the location of the Air Officer
Commanding in Chief.

I have written a long personal letter to Henderson [4] by this
mail in reply to letters he has written me recently on the
following subjects. Firstly, he evidently objected to my saying
that our information regarding the Dutch Islands, Malaya and the
Far East is vague, muddled and defective. I have written him in
terms that do not admit of misunderstanding as to how I regard the
responsibilities of the External Affairs Department, particularly
in respect of the wild and tempting island groups to our North.

The Defence Department is charged with collecting such Naval,
Military and Air intelligence as would be of value to them in war.

The External Affairs Department is charged, in my opinion, with
correlating all the Defence intelligence and superimposing
political intelligence on the top of it. In my opinion the Defence
intelligence is none too good about the N.E.I., and our External
Affairs Department intelligence is worse still. We are in a
deplorable state of ignorance about our back door. It should be
the function of the External Affairs Department to stir up the
Defence Department in this regard and to recruit any and every
possible line of communication that might bring light to our
darkness.

The other subject on which I have written Henderson is the
question of educating the public mind through the Press and other
public bodies by means of regular weekly articles on countries and
subjects of world interest. He has written me a long letter saying
that it is impossible to do this without making statements that
will offend some country or other. I am afraid I entirely fail to
see the force of this objection. I wrote 20 or 30 articles whilst
I was in Australia and distributed them weekly to the Press and I
contend that these were not uninteresting; were non-controversial,
and could not conceivably get us into trouble with any country. In
my opinion, it is quite possible to write articles of this type
that are useful and interesting without being in any way
emasculate through reticence. An article went out weekly
practically without a break whilst I was in Australia. Not more
than two have gone out in the nine months since Henderson got back
to Australia. He has let the summaries of the foreign press
continue to be circulated, but nothing else. He intends to stifle
the system of distribution of information to the Press. I really
have no available minutes here to do these articles myself and
send them out, but I will try and get some typical ones done and
will send them to you within the next month, and if, after
glancing through them, you feel you can approve of them, I would
be glad if you would pass them to Henderson.

Again with regard to the Netherlands East Indies, is it too much
to think that at some time in the future Dutch New Guinea might be
acquired by the Commonwealth, and thus secure the whole of the
Island of New Guinea under one sovereignty? This may sound
fanciful and I have at the moment nothing to say to back it up
other than that it would probably be a boon in the future to have
no neighbours on this big and potentially valuable island. Holland
has done as nearly nothing as no matter, I believe, in the way of
development in Dutch New Guinea. No doubt she finds that Java and
Sumatra absorb all the funds that she has available for
development, and the rest of the N.E.I. will have to wait its very
distant turn.

By the way, if you find yourself able to answer my query as to how
you would regard proposals for the formation of a big American
Land and Development Company in T.N.G. and/or Papua, I would be
most interested. As I said, I have no ulterior motive whatever in
asking you this, other than that some such proposal may come to
one's ears in the future. With American capital seeking outlets in
all parts of the world, it would not be surprising if its eye
lights on the huge undeveloped areas of New Guinea.

I went to see Sir Ronald Lindsay [5] at the Foreign Office in this
last week, with regard to the Antarctic. Having only recently
taken over the Foreign Office, he was fresh to the subject, but
had been primed beforehand and quite appreciated the main points
of the position. I explained our position in particular to him and
said that whereas an Australian or a joint expedition to secure
the sovereignty of a large part of the Antarctic was possible in
the near future, it seemed improbable that it could be organised
in time to forestall the 'Norvegia', and that I had come to see
him to ask that no diplomatic stone should be left unturned to
warn the Norwegians off. It was the opinion of the Foreign Office
Legal Adviser [6] that if the 'Norvegia' indulged in flag-planting
in Enderby Land or the vicinity, it would be hard to recover the
position afterwards by diplomatic means or by arbitration as our
claim was weak in international law. I suggested, therefore, that
every means should be taken beforehand to warn the Norwegians off.

He appreciates the position and proposes to tackle the Norwegian
Minister in London [7] when he returns in September. I sent him an
aide-memoire of our conversation afterwards to ensure that it is
not overlooked.

Officer [8] tells me that he has heard the story in several
quarters in Australia that I am doing this job here on an honorary
basis. I cannot imagine how this has got about. I take every
opportunity to regard myself strictly on the same footing as other
civil servants. I mention this story as it may possibly be used in
the election, and it might be as well to scotch it at once if it
does.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY