My dear Prime Minister,

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

In my letters of May 11th and 25th [1], I wrote to you at
considerable length about the work of the Imperial Economic
Committee and the reorganisation that was taking place since Sir
David Chadwick became Secretary.

I am enclosing a copy of the new Standing Orders of the Committee
which have been approved by the Committee and are now subject only
to one or two very small verbal alterations. The orders will, I
think, be printed and I shall, of course, send you copies in the
final form but as the enclosed draft is substantially final, I
would like to comment on one or two points in connection with it.

The main feature is a definite recognition of a Main Session to
last from the beginning of February to the end of July and it is
during that Main Session that it will be highly desirable that the
Australian representation should be strengthened by the
appointment of a colleague for myself, who, I venture to suggest,
should not in future be chosen for specialised knowledge on any
one industry but should rather be a man who would be regarded in
Australia as a person of definite weight and importance. I very
much hope that you will give the idea of the annual appointment of
a second member of the Committee, who is likely to be available in
London during at least a greater portion of the period from
February to July-and preferably during the whole of the months of
May, June and July-your earnest consideration.

I would then direct your attention to Standing Order No. 27. This
will allow for the appointment of advisers to the Australian
Delegation and thus make it possible for you to indicate that
certain men with specialist knowledge, who may be in London, can
be asked to act as advisers in connection with any particular
enquiry.

I should also like to know whether you approve of my consulting
the High Commissioner [2] and, with his concurrence, obtaining the
services of anybody whom I think might be specially useful as an
expert adviser on any subject that may come up. Perhaps the most
convenient way would be if you were to authorise the High
Commissioner, in consultation with myself, to appoint expert
advisers when necessary to the Australian Delegation and then it
would be possible for your Department to keep the High
Commissioner and myself advised as to the probable presence in
London of persons who might be used in that capacity.

I think you will agree that the new Standing Orders definitely
improve the way in which the Committee may be expected to
function. [3]

The Committee has just about completed its enquiry into fish and
at the last meeting on Tuesday the question of the appointment of
a Drafting Committee for the Fish Report arose. Although Fish is a
matter of no very great importance to Australia, yet I found that
it was almost impossible to refuse the definite indication of the
whole Committee that I should act on this Drafting Committee. With
very great reluctance I finally agreed but had to stipulate that
the meetings of the Drafting Committee should normally be held in
the evening, as the pressure of work during the day time would
make it impossible for me to attend. I took the decision having
clearly in mind two ideas: firstly, that I believe that you are
extremely anxious that the work of the Imperial Economic Committee
should be as effective as possible and that its published reports
should obtain wide circulation and approval. As you are the author
of this Committee, I feel sure that I am right in that assumption.

Secondly, I am deeply convinced, and I believe that you share this
conviction, that having regard to the growing public recognition
of the Empire Marketing Board, it is extremely important that the
imperial Economic Committee itself should remain in the minds of
important people throughout the Empire as being the senior and
parent body. If this is to be the case, a great deal of
enthusiastic work must be put into the labours of the Imperial
Economic Committee.

I would also suggest that whenever you yourself are making
reference in Australia to the work of the Empire Marketing Board,
you might take care to point out that the Empire Marketing Board
is in effect the creation of the Imperial Economic Committee and
derives its main terms of reference from the reports of the
Committee.

MR. PRATTEN [4]

Mr. Pratten arrived in London on Tuesday and having received a
message that he would like to see me, I called on him this
morning. I told him that I should be delighted to assist him in
any way I could and he consulted me as to the relative importance
of a number of people who were anxious to see him.

He has been invited by the Federation of British Industries to a
private dinner to meet some of the most representative business
men in England and I had no hesitation in advising him to accept
this invitation. I think Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister [5] is also
likely to arrange a private dinner of the same type.

I told Mr. Pratten of the difficulties which the instability of
the Australian Tariff caused in the minds of many people here and
of the way in which it might prejudice the educational work which
was being carried on as regards the importance of the Empire to
Great Britain.

I further suggested that as Australia could not conceivably
establish the whole range of manufacturing industries in the
course of the next five or even ten years, there was a good deal
to be said for making a virtue of necessity and privately
explaining to important people that the Australian policy of
protection did not mean that every type of article would be
heavily protected in the near future.

DR. HADEN GUEST [6]

Dr. Haden Guest is going to visit Australia probably during the
months of September and October. He has commissions from one or
two English newspapers to write about Empire Development and as he
is both a forceful and persuasive writer, his visit ought to be
definitely useful. I will write to you later about the actual time
of his arrival but I strongly suggest that it would be worth while
your seeing him and giving him introductions from yourself to
those persons in Australia whom you think it might be advantageous
for him to meet.

I hope within the next week or fortnight to send you a series of
notes about the implications of the Geneva International Economic
Conference. The reports are decidedly interesting and to my mind
the outstanding feature of the Conference has been the
acknowledgment of the fact that the prosperity of industry must
depend upon the prosperity of the agricultural producer and worker
throughout the world. This is the feature of such striking
interest to the British Empire that I propose to use the idea in
all sorts of ways. There were also some extremely pertinent
remarks about tariffs which I hope to have put into consecutive
order for you in the near future.

At the present time one is suffering from almost too many visitors
from Australia-a number of whom are people of considerable
importance who arrive with letters of introduction and who must be
given some attention.

Ordinary routine work on dried fruits is taking up a good deal of
time and with Messrs. Bell [7] and Howie [8] over, discussions on
policy are numerous. I should be glad if arrangements so sort
themselves out that I can be relieved from the mere detail work in
connection with dried fruits and be able to devote myself more
completely to questions of general marketing policy and the work
of the Imperial Economic Committee, the Empire Marketing Board,
the D. & M. Commission and the C.C.S.I.R.

Mr. Julius [9] is arriving on Tuesday next and he has sent me from
Paris a whole list of things that he wants to look into and [in]
which he is looking for my assistance. I am quite eagerly looking
forward to meeting him.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL
[Handwritten postscript]

I enclose a cutting from the 'Star' on the Tariff.