My dear Prime Minister,

EMPIRE PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION

Since I last wrote to you it occurred to me that, as there are 27
members of various Empire Parliaments in London waiting to proceed
to Canada, it would be a happy idea if the Empire Marketing Board
entertained them to lunch in order to give them an opportunity of
getting some knowledge of the work of the Board. I had a little
difficulty in persuading Ministers that this was desirable,
because there will be no Minister available in London to take the
Chair. To my mind, this is one of the main attractions because J.

H. Thomas [1] will take the Chair and we shall have a firstclass
demonstration of the interest of Labour in the Empire and of the
entirely non-party nature of the Board itself. The lunch is,
therefore, taking place on Friday and the delegates will obtain
their impressions of the work of the Board from Thomas himself,
from Sir Thomas Allen, of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, who
will describe the Board's work on marketing and publicity and in a
very brief statement from myself on research matters.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

On Friday last I had a long talk with Sir Arthur Salter, the
Director of the Financial and Economic Organisation of the League,
who happened to be in London. I have prepared a note of this
conversation, a copy of which I enclose. I have also arranged to
discuss the position of the attitude which the Australian
Delegation should take up with Casey [2] and Officer [3] this
evening. I shall then decide, as a result of that discussion,
whether or not it is necessary to worry you with a cable.

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

The Tobacco Report of the Imperial Economic Committee was
published last Friday. [4] You will, of course, receive copies
direct from the Empire Marketing Board. In case there should be
any delay, I am enclosing a copy herewith.

You will probably remember that, with our earlier reports, I used
to forward you the final typescript directly it had been signed.

Now that I am in direct communication with the D. & M. Commission,
the C.C.S.I.R. and the Minister for Markets [5], I am not
forwarding these reports to you until they are fully printed as I
do not want to waste your time with suggestions that you should
read reports under unnecessarily difficult conditions.

The Tobacco Report obtained quite good publicity and I am
enclosing a selection of cuttings which you might just glance at.

The Timber Report [6] has been published to-day and I have been
asked by Chadwick [7] to inform you that, as it was desirable that
the members of the Empire Forestry Conference should receive
copies of this report at the time when they commence their Plenary
Sessions at Canberra, the Commonwealth Government will be
receiving the printed report simultaneously with Members of the
Conference. Chadwick recognises that it would have been better had
the report been in your hands and in those of Julius [8], Gepp [9]
and Rivett [10] before they reached the Conference but, under
these circumstances, he feels sure that you will have no
objection. As it happens I forwarded, about a fortnight ago, the
typescript of the report to Rivett and to Gepp.

Last Sunday's 'Observer' published a cable from its Sydney
Correspondent stating that the date of Commonwealth General
Election had definitely been fixed for November 17th and in fact
giving details that the date had been postponed for a week in
order to avoid clashing with one of the Melbourne Race Meetings.

There has been no confirmation of this rumour and I therefore
presume that the matter is still undecided. [11]

Mr. D. S. Jackson, M.H. R., of the Bass Division of Tasmania,
called on me yesterday and seemed extremely confident as to the
electoral prospects. We had quite an interesting talk about
Australian development and I promised to get him out some
information about the possibilities of an export industry in
mutton and lamb and in pig products from Northern Tasmania.

AUSTRALIAN PUBLICITY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

From various communications which the London Agency of the
Australian Dried Fruit Board have received, I have gathered that
the Commonwealth Government has not definitely made up its mind to
continue the for contribution towards the joint Publicity
Scheme. [12] This may not be the case but if there is any
hesitation on behalf of the Cabinet, I certainly think that it is
most important that the work which has been so effectively started
here should be continued.

There is probably in the mind of the public and perhaps even of
Ministers some confusion of thought on the respective provinces of
the Empire Marketing Board and the Australian Publicity Scheme in
regard to publicity. The situation was set out pretty clearly in
the Second Annual Report of the Empire Marketing Board [13], on
page 36, of which a copy has been forwarded to you. There can be
no doubt that Hyland [14] has done very good painstaking work over
here and he is now working with the closest harmony with the staff
of the E.M.B.

The Board itself feels, and I think rightly, that it cannot
undertake a series of large scale campaigns for the particular
products of particular Dominions or Colonies but it is prepared to
continue its general campaign of background advertising
illustrating its point by constant references to particular Empire
commodities. This provides a background within which, for a quite
reasonable expenditure, Australia is able to make a really
firstclass case for her own products. Since your Government
decided on the joint Publicity Scheme, your example has been
followed, with some variations, by Canada, Southern Rhodesia is
about to follow suit in regard to Tobacco and other Dominion
Governments, such as the Irish Free State, are very interested and
closely studying the Australian example.

I do not think it really at all likely that the Commonwealth
Government is reconsidering its attitude in this matter and
confidently expect to find that the scheme will be gone ahead
with.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL