My dear Prime Minister,

This morning's 'Times' was predominantly Australian, the main
feature of the chief news page being the report on the Budget and
the new preference proposals in regard to British motors. [1]
There was an excellent leading article on the Commonwealth at
Canberra. [2] You will, of course, be receiving these from other
sources but I enclose the cuttings in case you should miss them in
the ordinary way.

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMIC POLICY

The Agricultural Economic Committee of the Empire Marketing Board,
of which I am Chairman, has just completed a report for the
Imperial Agricultural Research Conference which is, I think, a
fairly useful document and which will be printed immediately. [3]
I shall, of course, send you copies.

My main purpose, however, in raising this subject in today's
letter is to draw your attention to two extremely interesting
articles on the U.S.A. Government agricultural policy. The first
is an article by Mr. Jardine [4], the Secretary of Agriculture,
which was published in the Farm Journal of Philadelphia, and the
second is a special article by Mr. Charles R. Crisp, of the United
States Congress, which appeared in the 'Manchester Guardian
Commercial' at the end of August. [5] Both these articles are
worth very careful study because they both stress, in the dearest
possible way, the importance of stabilisation of prices and also
of large scale organization by the farmers and the possibility of
Government support for such organization provided it is
sufficiently inclusive. I am sending copies of these two articles
to Mr. Paterson. [6]

I feel that either you or Mr. Paterson may feel it desirable to
give very considerable publicity to the article by Mr. Jardine, as
the views expressed by this member of an intensely Conservative,
in fact big business Cabinet in America, are views which strongly
support the general line of policy which your Government has
adopted. The possibility of Imperial Stabilization Corporations on
the lines proposed by Mr. Jardine in his article may well prove
worth a close scrutiny. I shall sound opinion here on the subject
and write again to you at a later date.

VISIT TO GENEVA

In my last letter I reported that Julius [7] was extremely anxious
that he and I should go to Geneva to discuss scientific
development problems with Sir George Pearce [8] and also with
Major Walter Elliot. [9] We utilised the past week-end for this
purpose, leaving London on Friday, seeing Sir George Pearce and
Major Elliot separately on Saturday evening and jointly on Monday
morning and returning from Geneva on Monday evening.

The subjects discussed included the Tropical Agricultural Research
Station, Veterinary Research, Dairy Research, the general problem
of irrigation and the possibilities of cooperation between the
Commonwealth Council for Scientific & Industrial Research and the
Empire Marketing Board in regard to irrigation research, Fish
Research and preservation, and the general subject of British
recognition of the efforts being made in Australia to apply
science to industry and particularly to agriculture.

There can be no doubt that the impression created by these talks
both on Sir George Pearce and on Major Elliot were excellent.

Elliot expressed to Sir George the very great appreciation that he
felt and that the Scientific Authorities in Great Britain were
beginning to feel at the way in which the Commonwealth Government
was not only financially supporting scientific research but also
of the way in which the Prime Minister and Sir George Pearce were
taking so active a personal interest in research problems.

Elliot said that in his experience this was as welcome as it was
unusual but that he felt sure that it was not only sound
statesmanship but also good politics.

You will be a little amused perhaps to know that, before this
interview, I stressed to Elliot his tendency of following
attractive dialectical by-paths with the result that during this
talk he was entirely practical and businesslike and I should
imagine created a very favorable personal impression on Sir George
Pearce.

There can be no doubt that if Elliot is to take any very prominent
part in British politics, he will need to avoid the attractive by-
paths into which the possession of a remarkably clever tongue
leads him.

DRIED FRUIT

In my last letter I wrote in the spirit of qualified optimism
about the prospects of marketing dried fruits in this country. The
situation here has not changed, in fact there are very definite
signs that the years of work that have been put in to educate the
British public as to the desirability of supporting the Australian
dried fruit industry are beginning to bear really valuable fruit.

Unfortunately we have just received advices of the very serious
frost damage that has occurred throughout the Murray Valley.

Reports talk about 90% damage which, of course, must be grossly
exaggerated but even so, there can be little doubt that serious
damage has been done. This is intensely regrettable not only from
my own personal point of view, although I suppose I shall suffer
considerably, nor indeed only from the point of view of the
production of the industry. It will be extremely unfortunate if
just as the industry is finding its feet in Great Britain we are
faced next year with such a shortage in export as to preclude the
possibility of continuity of supply. Unfortunately nothing can be
done and we can only hope that the dormant buds on the vines will
shoot and produce a crop which will allow some margin for export.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL