My dear Prime Minister,

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

I am forwarding, under separate cover, the final draft of the Fish
Report. I do not anticipate that you will feel inclined to spend
much time reading it until it reaches you in the printed form. The
text has now gone for printing and it is anticipated that it will
be ready for issue on about the 1st September. I may possibly be
able to obtain printed copies for despatch to you a little
earlier.

Should you feel inclined to spend any time looking at the report
in its draft form, I would suggest that the most important
paragraphs are those from No. 72-97, dealing with research and
organisation, paragraphs 125-134, particularly No. 134, which deal
with fish meal, and paragraphs 139-142 where the Australian
Fisheries are very briefly touched upon. The summary of
conclusions and recommendations at the end of the report is full
and gives the gist of the report in a few pages. I am sending
copies by today's mail to Gepp [1] and to Rivett [2] but am
telling them both that this draft must be regarded as secret and
that, under no circumstances, must any reference be made to it in
the press until the printed copies arrive.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

During August there will not be any meetings of its two Main
Committees. There are, however, two Sub-Committees which are
continuing to function, namely the Press and Poster Sub-Committee
of the Main Publicity Committee, and also a new Sub-Committee,
which has only so far held 3 meetings, which has been set up to
deal with the important and interesting subject of agricultural
economics.

I am the Chairman of this Sub-Committee and the Members consist of
the Representative for India on the Empire Marketing Board [3],
Mr. Orwin [4], who is in charge of agricultural economics at
Oxford, Mr. Venn [5], who holds a similar position at Cambridge,
Mr. Enfield [6], of the Ministry of Agriculture, and Mr. Guild
[7], of the National Farmers' Union.

Our immediate purpose is to draw up a report on agricultural
economics from an Imperial point of view for presentation to the
Imperial Agricultural Conference in October. At the first meeting
we had a much larger body, all the available experts being
present. It became obvious to me, both at this first large meeting
and the second meeting of my smaller Sub-Committee, that the very
vaguest ideas were held even by the economists as to the real
meaning of agricultural economics and I made my Committee stick to
the question of defining the scope of agricultural economics so
far as the Empire is concerned. We, therefore, arrived at a list
of all the subjects that might usefully be regarded as falling
within the scope of agricultural economics and then proceeded
yesterday to decide as to which of these subjects could be dealt
with on an Imperial basis.

By the next mail I hope to be able to send you some more
information on this subject, which I feel sure you will realise is
one of very great importance to Australia.

SIR GEORGE PEARCE [8]

It has been a great pleasure to meet Sir George Pearce and I have
had two or three short talks with him since his arrival. He told
me that he was making a tour in the North of England and asked me
for some suggestions in regard to speeches.

I told him that, in my opinion, it would be useful to recognise
the changing atmosphere in this country to Imperial questions and
to express the great satisfaction of the Commonwealth Government
of the way in which the British people were at last beginning to
realise the significance and meaning of Empire development. I am
quite sure that something of this sort would be not only
appreciated but would, also serve a very useful purpose today.

I have told Sir George that Major Walter Elliot [9] will be one of
the British Delegation to Geneva and I am trying to arrange for
Elliot to call and see Sir George before they both leave for
Geneva. I hope that at Geneva they will make an opportunity to
have several talks about the development of scientific research as
between the Commonwealth Council for Scientific & Industrial
Research and the Empire Marketing Board.

BUSINESS DELEGATION TO AUSTRALIA

The Dominions Office informed me yesterday of the recent cables
that had been interchanged on this subject and I was very glad to
hear from them that you felt that Amery's [10] visit will afford
some excellent excuse for a temporary postponement of the Business
Delegation.

I gather that Lord Lovat [11], who, as you fully realise, is a man
of great energy and of very considerable influence, intends to
take a very active interest in the selection of a first class team
to visit Australia as soon as London resumes activities after the
August and September holidays. I feel quite sure that if Lovat
throws his weight into the selection of a first class team, it
will be more effective than anything that Amery is personally able
to achieve.

IMPERIAL ECONOMICS

In my last letter I drew your special attention to the suggestion
made by Mr. A. V. Alexander [12] M.P., in the debate on the Board
of Trade Vote to the consultation between Great Britain and the
Dominions on the distribution of secondary industries. I hope that
this suggestion may receive your very careful attention. I am not
at all sure that, given a spirit of reciprocity in Great Britain,
some such subject might well be the basis of an Imperial Economic
Conference in 1929.

I have drawn Sir George Pearce's attention to this particular
reference and shall endeavour to collect opinions from persons of
importance as to the possibility of some development along these
lines.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL