(Due to arrive Canberra 21.3.29)

My dear P.M.,

You may care to know about a most interesting development that is
being worked on a good deal at the moment behind the scenes.

As you know, the most urgent and distressing public matter in this
country is the complete failure of all attempts up to the present
to deal with the unemployment situation. A suggestion has been
made-by Philip Gibbs [1], the novelist and war correspondent-that
a Chartered Company on a large scale should be formed in London,
as an ordinary business proposition but with some Government
backing, to develop the Peace River district in Canada. The Prince
of Wales would be used as the central figure for a crusade to get
together a large body of the young men from the distressed areas
and start a new settlement in Canada. The Prince would make the
scheme his own and would visit the settlement from time to time.

The scheme is being seriously considered by the Prime Minister and
a member of the Cabinet. The Prince of Wales has been spoken to
and has agreed to play his part if it comes to anything.

The whole scheme has an air of reality about it and it is possible
that it may come to something. Amery [2] is raising difficulties
at the moment and Mackenzie King [3] has not yet been approached.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY