My dear Prime Minister,

CANBERRA

During this week you must have been tremendously busy and also
interested in the Canberra Celebrations. So far as one is able to
gather from the reports in the British press, the whole of the
ceremonies went off very well, apart from the deplorable flying
accident. [1]

The event aroused great interest here and the press was very full
of comment. I thought the 'Times' Special Canberra Number was
excellent. In case you may not have seen them, I am enclosing
three articles which I personally contributed, two of which
appeared in the 'Times' Supplement and one in the 'Manchester
Guardian'. Two of them which I have specially marked in blue
pencil are, I think, worth your personal reading. [2]

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

It is some time since I have sent you any report about the work of
the Imperial Economic Committee, the reason being that the enquiry
into fish has not been of a particularly interesting nature and
also under Mackinder [3] the Committee has been tending towards
stagnation.

During the past week Sir David Chadwick [4], together with myself
and two M.P.s who are members of the British Delegation, have been
discussing how to make the work of the Committee more effective
and, as a result, Chadwick drew up some new ideas on procedure
which he induced Mackinder to agree to and which have now been put
before a little Sub-Committee on Procedure for consideration. I
hope that, as a result, we shall succeed in making the Committee a
much more effective working body in spite of the immense incubus
of the Chairman.

Chadwick is certainly quite excellent and as he will be fully
supported by the Committee who, while having no confidence at all
in Mackinder, are gaining very considerable confidence in
Chadwick, I think that the work will go ahead in a satisfactory
way.

The idea will be to confine the main session of the Full Committee
to a period from January to July, relegating to the Secretariat,
assisted by a Permanent Standing Sub-Committee, the whole of the
preparation of subjects for investigation and report. It is also
proposed to take the bulk of the evidence on the various subjects
under review in Sub-Committee and to reserve for the Full
Committee discussions on the larger issues and the examination of
only the very important witnesses.

You will realise that it is a decidedly uphill task to make the
Committee a success at the present time but I feel convinced that
it is essential that this should be accomplished and I intend to
spare no efforts in the matter. Perhaps when you see Mr. Amery [5]
in Australia, you would again take up the question with him of the
personality of the Chair.

With regard to the Australian Delegation, as I have received no
word from you as to any colleague for myself during the present
investigation on fish and tobacco, I am assuming that you have
decided not to appoint a second Australian representative during
the present session. I would, however, suggest that, starting from
next January or February, an attempt should be made to appoint
each year someone who could collaborate with me and who could both
assist the Committee and also receive valuable education which
would be of value on his return to Australia.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD AND RESEARCH PROBLEMS

You will probably remember that one of the Research decisions of
the Empire Marketing Board was to make a grant of 4,000 per annum
to the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, in order to enable the
Director, or the Assistant Director, to visit the overseas parts
of the Empire so as to advise on botanical questions and also to
further effective liaison throughout the Empire.

About a week ago I received from Dr. Rivett [6] a personal letter
in which he stated that the idea of the Director of Kew being able
to visit the Dominions was one which was very warmly welcomed and
he expressed the hope, on behalf of the Commonwealth Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research, that Dr. A. W. Hill, F.R.S.

would visit Australia at an early date.

I immediately sent an extract of Dr. Rivett's letter to Dr. Hill,
who replied saying that he would particularly like to arrange to
visit Australia at an early date. I am hoping that, as a result,
Dr. Hill will make Australia the first place that he will visit
under this new scheme and it may be possible to arrange for him to
leave for Australia about the end of October.

With regard to the Tropical Research Station in Northern
Queensland, it now seems possible that Dr. Martin Leake, who,
until the last few weeks, has been the Director of the Imperial
School of Tropical Agriculture at Trinidad but whose health the
climate of Trinidad has detrimentally affected, may be available
and I have been discussing with Major Walter Elliot [7] the
practicability of the Empire Marketing Board offering to send Dr.

Leake to Australia in order to consult with the C.C.S.I.R. on the
problems connected with the Queensland Tropical Station.

As soon as this matter has reached a slightly more advanced stage,
I shall cable to Rivett for information as to whether a proposal
from the Empire Marketing Board to send Dr. Leake for consultative
purposes would be one which the C.C.S.I.R. would welcome.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD AND PUBLICITY

The individual application from Schools for copies of the Highways
of Empire Map and other reproductions of the Empire Marketing
Board posters continue to come in at a very encouraging rate. At
the present time about 8,000 individual applications have been
received and it is rather interesting to note the Counties from
which the bulk of the applications have come. At the moment
Yorkshire stands first, Lancashire second, the County of London
third and the County of Durham fourth.

In view of the immense strength of the labour movement in the
County of Durham, it is very significant that more applications
should have been received from Durham than from such Counties as
Surrey or Warwickshire. I anticipate that, as a larger number of
Headmasters learn about these reproductions, we shall get
applications which will run up to about 20,000 and in that way
introducing to the School a pleasant method whereby children may
receive what might be described as lessons in Empire economic
geography without tears.

The Empire Marketing Board is giving Mr. McCormack [8], the
Premier of Queensland, a private luncheon next week and early in
June will entertain the London representatives of the Overseas
Empire Press.

The Empire Marketing Board has been doing no newspaper advertising
for the last six weeks. We are starting again this month and, as a
preliminary, full page advertisements will appear in the 'Daily
Herald' (Labour) and in the more important Labour weeklies drawing
attention to what Empire development means to the working classes
of this country with special reference to trade with Australia and
New Zealand. This Labour copy has been prepared by Mr. Tom
Johnston [9] M.P. and myself and it was a source of great
satisfaction to me to find how keenly Johnston cooperated in the
matter.

SIR ALFRED MOND'S [10] SCHEME

On Friday, the 6th May, I went with Dr. Orr [11] to inspect
certain new methods of treating grass land and also the conserving
of young grass at Sir Alfred Mond's place at Romsey. We had lunch
at Mond's palatial residence and after lunch Mond walked round his
home farm with me discussing his recent speeches on the subject of
free trade within the Empire.

I hope that I convinced him of the futility of preaching the
gospel of the abolition of tariffs as between Great Britain and
the Dominions and of the practicability of a modification of his
scheme in the direction which I mentioned in my last letter to
you.

Mond promised to send me further information about his ideas and
asked me whether I would then comment upon them. I am, however,
not quite sure how far Mond is a person whom one should use in
this connection. He is personally very unpopular in the House and,
although everybody recognises his ability, I found that many good
judges regard him as a definitely dangerous man. It is, for
instance, freely suggested that his commercial ties with Germany
are very much stronger than appear on the surface.

BRITISH TRADE

The preliminary trade figures for April were published last night
and I have prepared a statement about the 4 months trade of 1927
as compared with 1924, 1925 and 1926, which I am sure you will
find of very considerable interest. On one sheet I have had set
out the actual trade and on another the imports into and exports
from Great Britain of manufactured goods both on the recorded
values and also on values taken at the 1924 price level.

You will notice the steady growth of the imports of manufactured
goods which have increased by 45% since 1924 and the much less
satisfactory progress in the export of manufactured goods which,
although they show a slight improvement on 1924, yet record a
decrease of 6.3% since 1925. These figures appear to me to show
that the case which we have been presenting is sound and that the
cheerful anticipation of the restoration of British prosperity
through the normal revival of world trade is an anticipation based
on most unsatisfactory premises.

On this general question of trade, I am enclosing some rather
interesting notes from the 'Times Trade Supplement' in which the
statement issued by the British Delegation to Geneva is contrasted
with the figures that I have been responsible for lately. [12]

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL