My dear Prime Minister,

BUSINESS DELEGATION

Just as I was about to start to dictate my usual letter to you, I
had a telephone message from Lord Lovat's [1] Private Secretary
asking me if I could go down and meet Lord Lovat in the House of
Lords.

I found that he wanted to talk to me about the Business Delegation
to Australia. He told me that, after very great efforts, he felt
reasonably sure of getting at least three out of the four names-
Lord Colwyn [2], Sir George Beharrell [3], Sir Harry McGowan [4]
and Sir Arthur Duckham. [5] Colwyn you of course know but Lovat
told me that he is Mr. Baldwin's [6] special nomination and that
Mr. Baldwin regards him as one of the soundest and whitest men
that he knows.

Sir George Beharrell is regarded by Lovat as the strongest member
of what is obviously a very strong selection. He is the President
of the Associated Federation of Motor Traders Federations and,
according to Lovat, is the directing brain of Dunlops and Imperial
Airways.

Sir Harry McGowan you also must know quite well. He is a Vice-
Chairman of the Imperial Chemical Industries and the late head of
Nobels. He would be a far better representative of the Imperial
Chemical Industries than Sir Max Muspratt [7], who was proposed
earlier. I should certainly think that McGowan stands as high as
anybody in the English business world and has this distinct
advantage that he is a keen Imperialist.

Sir Arthur Duckham is one of the foremost authorities on fuel,
particularly from the point of view of the utilisation of coals.

He was a member of the famous Sankey Royal Commission on Coal [8]
and Director-General of Aeroplane supply to the Ministry of
Munitions in succession to Lord Weir. [9] He has recently been
Chairman of a private Government Committee to consider co-
ordination of scientific research in the three fighting services.

Arthur Duckham is, incidentally, a first cousin of mine and is, I
think, undoubtedly one of the ablest of the younger men in the
industrial world. He is, I should imagine, about 49.

Lovat told me that he was going to cable you these names today
[10] but he would very much appreciate it if I could send you a
private cable indicating, firstly, my view of these names and,
secondly, telling you that it would be quite impossible for the
British Government to get any strong team to leave Great Britain
before July. He pointed out that, at the present moment, the air
is full of rumours of industrial re-organisation, that the
industrial position is far from stable and that it would be
impossible to get a team of really firstclass men to leave Great
Britain for any length of time at the present juncture.

I told Lovat that I would certainly arrange to pass on to you this
information but that I thought you would probably desire him to
try to be in a position to publish the names of the Business
Delegation at as early a date as possible. He told me that he had
asked each of the four men mentioned to let him have a definite
answer by the 10th of January. By that time he hoped to have
received your reply and, in the event of your approving and of the
four men signifying their willingness to go, a definite invitation
would be sent by Baldwin to these men by the 15th of January and
it was probable that publication could take place whenever you
desired after, say, the end of January.

As this seemed to be a pretty delicate business and as there is
some considerable difficulty in feeling at all sure that a cable
despatched from Australia House remains quite confidential, I went
over from the Dominions Office and saw Casey [11] and asked him to
send a cable to you this afternoon.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL