(Due to arrive Canberra 17.5.29)

My dear P.M.,

I have been wondering lately whether it would be a good plan to
prepare the ground ahead for the next Imperial Conference by
trying to get some one influential group of the press here to take
up the Imperial question, not as a 'stunt' but in a serious
endeavour to impress on the country the primary Imperial
necessities-such as Imperial solidarity in peace as in war, the
urgency of greater Imperial trade reciprocity in some form or
other, and the necessity for a more sympathetic appreciation in
this country of the requirements of the Dominions-in short, a
drive to try and bring about a greater measure of Imperial-
mindedness all round.

But as one looks over the various groups that control the press
here, one is faced with the difficulty as to which of them to
suggest as the best to take on an effort of this sort. You have, I
imagine, to rule out the Liberal press. The 'Times' and the
'Morning Post' are hardly the media for such an endeavour. This
leaves Rothermere's 'Daily Mail', Beaverbrook's 'Daily Express'
and Sir Gomer Berry's 'Daily Telegraph'. Beaverbrook is certainly
trying to be Imperial-minded but he would not do anything to
offend Canada. [1] The 'Daily Mail' might possibly seize on to the
idea but would use it in their usual rather ham-fisted 'stunt'
fashion. The 'Daily Telegraph' is left and, at the moment, I think
that they might be the best. The proprietor is Sir Gomer Berry but
his interest, I understand, is purely financial and the Hon. W. A.

W. Lawson (son of Lord Burnham) I believe is the Manager and the
leading spirit.

I would be glad to know if you think it is any use trying to work
along these lines. I would suggest that you, personally, should be
featured quite considerably in any such scheme of Imperial
publicity-even to the extent of proposing that you should be made
the central figure, so that your voice at the next Imperial
Conference would have the backing of whatever publicity such a
scheme might produce.

As I imagine you cannot 'run' any such serious line of publicity
in the press for more than a month or two, I suppose such a scheme
could not be initiated until say three or four months before the
next Imperial Conference. But as these things take time to arrange
and to think out properly, one would have to begin to think about
any such scheme in the comparatively near future.

If you think anything at all of the above I would be glad if you
would let me know. You need do no more than say that you agree
generally. [2]

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY