My dear Prime Minister,

There has been a gap in my letters to you, owing to my going to
Rome for the General Assembly of the International Institute of
Agriculture. I returned on Sunday, and found when I got to Calais
that a first-class gale was blowing; I had a wretched cross
Channel trip, the memory of which will remain with me for some
time.

ROME CONFERENCE

On the surface the Conference at Rome was extremely successful
from our point of view. The British Empire Delegations, which
consisted of four from England, one from Scotland, one from
Northern Ireland, two from the Irish Free State, two from Canada,
two from South Africa, two from India, and one from Australia,
worked together in the closest harmony, and also established quite
effective collaboration with the United States representatives.

As a result of prolonged discussions, both in the General Assembly
and in the Commissions which were appointed by the Assembly, we
got unanimous approval of a series of Resolutions which, if acted
upon, will result in making the International Institute a far more
effective body in the future. I very advisedly use the words 'if
acted upon', because, although the Italian Delegation voted for
our Resolutions, at the very last moment the chief Italian
Delegate made a statement, on behalf of the Italian Government, to
the effect that the Government felt itself entirely free to take
any action it liked, and would not feel itself in any way bound by
the votes of its Delegation.

The question really boils down to this-Is it possible to maintain
an effective International Institution at the seat of Government
of an intensely Nationalistic power? The key of the position is
that the post of Secretary-General is vacant. A unanimous
Resolution was passed, directing the Permanent Committee (the
governing body) to proceed immediately with the appointment of a
Secretary-General, and only to take into consideration the
qualifications of the candidates, without any regard to
nationality. The Fascist Government, however, takes the attitude
that the Secretary-General must be an Italian, and that, of
course, means an Italian in close sympathy with the Fascist
regime.

These are only preliminary observations which I am sending you at
the present moment, as I shall, of course, prepare a report on the
meeting of the General Assembly and forward it to you with a
covering letter in which I will go carefully into the more
important points that arose. I am, however, delaying the
preparation of this report at the request of the British
Delegation, because they desire to send me a copy of their report
before I prepare my own.

There is, however, one subject in connection with the Institute to
which I should like to draw your attention. On the Permanent
Committee of the Institute, and at previous General Assemblies of
the Institute, Mr. R. J. Thompson, C.B., O.B.E., an Assistant
Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, has acted as
representative of both Australia and New Zealand as well as of
Great Britain. Mr. Thompson is in charge of the statistical side
of the work of the Ministry of Agriculture, and is a good
conscientious creature who, without being very able, has most
painstakingly done what he could to keep the Institute on the
right track. I believe that Thompson has never received any
official thanks from the Commonwealth Government for having acted
on their behalf during the last three or four years, and I would
strongly recommend that you send him a personal letter expressing,
on behalf of the Government, your appreciation of the work which
he has done in connection with the International Institute. [1]

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

In looking through the recent cuttings sent to me from Australia,
I find that the 'Argus' published on 12th September a summary of
my report to you on the meeting of the Economic Consultative
Committee of the League of Nations. This is the first I have heard
of my report having been made public, and if it has been printed
or circulated, or if any extract has been circulated, I would be
particularly glad if you would be good enough to ask one of your
staff to forward two or three copies to me. [2]

TARIFF REPORT

You will remember you promised that I should receive a copy of the
Tariff Report as rewritten by Brigden. [3] Up to the present time
this has not arrived, and I should appreciate it very much if you
would be good enough to arrange that a copy should be forwarded to
me as soon as possible. I am, as you know, intensely interested in
this subject and hope that when after the Election you come to
make some definite arrangement about Economic Research, the plans
which will be approved will have been framed after consideration
of my suggestions for a certain amount of Economic Research on
behalf of Australia being done in London, in connection with my
office. [4] I will, however, try to write more fully on this
subject by the next mail.

I came back from Rome to a tremendous mass of arrears of work,
which will take some time to master, and as I have promised to
give the first of a series of lectures on Empire Trade at
Birmingham University tomorrow (mail day) my letters this week
will have to be extremely brief.

I hope that when this letter reaches you you will be taking a very
much needed rest after the exertions of the General Election.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL
P.S. I am enclosing two cuttings-a third leader from the 'Times'
on 'Menus for Empire Dinners [5] which I think you may find
amusing, and a most interesting article contributed to the 'Times'
by Tom Johnston [6], M.P., about Canada.