My dear Prime Minister,

Up to the present time the Election news that we have received
from Australia appears to indicate that the Nationalist Party will
lose from 7 to 8 seats in the House of Representatives, that the
Country Party will come back with a net gain of 1 or 2 seats and
that Labor will gain from 6 to 7 seats. There was general
satisfaction here as soon as it was seen that your Government was
safe but little interest has been taken in the actual composition
of the House. [1]
I find it difficult to assess the problems with which you will be
faced in the course of the next week or fortnight. The
proportionate increase in the strength of the Country Party in
comparison to the Nationalists may increase your personal
difficulties. On the other hand, I cannot but suppose that the
changed balance of strength of Parties may facilitate in some
degree the plans which I presume you have in mind in regard to
imparting a greater measure of economic sanity to the Australian
Customs Tariff.

The position in 1929 looks as though it would be somewhat similar
to the position in 1923 when you developed the policy of Export
Control legislation as a method of assisting the agricultural
producer. I venture to suggest that, at the present juncture, a
definite policy to encourage a vigorous development of the study
of agricultural economics might prove not only useful to Australia
but might also be politically sound.

The Empire Marketing Board would, I am certain, be very glad to
cooperate with Australia in a series of agricultural economic
investigations and I have sent a good deal of information to
Rivett [2] which would enable him to form a fairly clear idea as
to what the E.M.B. has in mind. I would further suggest that you
might consider the desirability of making Empire Agriculture one
of the main features of the forthcoming Imperial Conference.

I have not yet had time to attempt to set out any ideas about the
Imperial Conference but shall certainly try to do so as soon as
possible. There would, I feel, be a good deal to be said in favor
of holding an Imperial Economic Conference side by side with the
Imperial Conference, going back that is to the 1923 precedent and
making the agricultural issue a very important part of the
proceedings. There can be no doubt that, in the whole world, the
position of the farmer and of the farm worker is less advantageous
than that of those engaged as employers or employees in industry
and very much less advantageous than those employed in
distribution.

It is fairly clear that Hoover will be bound by his election
pledges to try to do something to relieve this disparity in the
United States of America. [3] It might, therefore, be very wise
for the Imperial Conference on the initiative of Australia to
envisage this problem. [4]

FINANCIAL AND ADVISORY BODY FOR THE NEW AGRICULTURAL BUREAUX [5]

Yesterday was the first meeting of this new Body and for about ten
days my time will be very heavily occupied therewith. Prior to the
meeting, the Dominions Office and the Ministry of Agriculture both
separately consulted me as to the best method of procedure and I
took the opportunity of stressing to both Departments, as
vigorously as I was able, the extreme importance of placing the
new Bureaux and the machinery of the Executive Body on a sound
Imperial model. I found that the Ministry of Agriculture was
anxious to appoint one of its own officers as a Secretary on the
Executive Body. This I most strenuously opposed and suggested that
Sir David Chadwick, as the Secretary of the Imperial Economic
Committee, would be far more suitable as he was the servant of all
the Governments of the Empire and not of any one. I said that I
could see no objection to a junior Civil Servant from the Ministry
of Agriculture acting as Assistant Secretary to Chadwick but that
it would be a very serious mistake to tie up this Imperial Body
with an individual British Ministry. I got the hearty support of
the Dominions Office in this point of view and we finally
persuaded the Ministry of Agriculture to agree.

Yesterday's discussion was very prolonged but quite satisfactory.

The Body will be meeting again tomorrow and on one or two days in
the following week. There can be little doubt that, provided the
work, for which we are trying to lay the foundations, is carried
out successfully, it is one of the biggest Inter-Imperial things
that has yet been attempted. The pressure of this additional work
must necessarily curtail the possibility of my writing at all
fully.

I trust and hope that you are not over tired as a result of the
Election campaign and that, at the present time, you will be
getting some relaxation, although you must have thorny problems in
connection with the actual composition of the Cabinet. I shall be
watching, with the very greatest interest, to see what appointment
you are able to make to the Portfolio of Trade and Customs [6] and
what other form of re-distribution you will find necessary.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL