My dear Prime Minister,

I have already written you two letters, one dealing with the
question of Trade Treaties in Foreign Countries and the other with
the Report of the British Economic Mission. [1] This letter will,
therefore, merely deal with a few other points.

I have had prepared a further set of figures dealing with American
competition and I enclose a copy as I think you will find them
distinctly interesting. The percentage figures have been carefully
weighted and the result is to emphasise once again how important
the American export trade has become.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

I am enclosing an advance copy of a pamphlet which has been
prepared by the Empire Marketing Board and which will be very
widely circulated in this country. [2] I think it is worth your
while to look through it because the case for Empire buying is
stated both simply and yet, effectively.

I am also forwarding a copy of a paper which I read to the
Agricultural Group of the Royal Institute of international
Affairs. I took a good deal of trouble in the preparation of this
paper, because I thought it would be useful to the Empire
Marketing Board to have a clear statement shewing the extent to
which the agriculture of the Empire is being assisted by the Board
and also to indicate how considerable is the assistance which the
Board is giving to British agriculture. If you find time to read
it, you will notice that I have used your speech at the 1923
Conference as the commencement of the movement. This, I feel quite
certain, is historically correct. If one could want any further
proof to maintain the position that the new movement in Great
Britain in favor of closer Empire relations owes its re-birth to
Australia and to you, it is to be found in this interesting fact.

In December 1922 a question was asked in the House of Commons as
to whether the Government was prepared to consider the granting of
more effective preferences to Empire products and particularly to
dried fruits. Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame [3] (Cunliffe-Lister)
replied, on behalf of the Government, that the Government had no
such intention but ten months later, the Imperial Economic
Conference occurred with all the subsequent happenings.

There can be no possible doubt that your proposal of the Imperial
Economic Committee at that Conference, together with the
preferential discussions that there occurred, directly led to the
formation of the Empire Marketing Board, of which Body you are,
therefore, the spiritual parent.

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

The International Institute of Agriculture at Rome is proposing to
establish an Agricultural Economics Committee. As you are aware, I
am more than doubtful as to the future of the International
Institute of Agriculture, because it is doubtful as to whether the
Italians are going to allow the Institute to become a truly
International Body. One's first reaction to this proposal was,
therefore, one of doubt as to whether it was worth while taking
very much trouble about a Committee having its basis at Rome. On
second thoughts, however, I have come to take the view that the
whole subject of agricultural economics so urgently needs a
thorough survey that I feel that a really useful purpose would be
served by a strong International Committee which might, in the
course of a year or eighteen months, succeed in defining the scope
of agricultural economics and giving a decided stimulus to its
study. Under these circumstances my judgment is somewhat in favor
of supporting this proposal. It is the sort of Committee which
would, I presume, meet once or twice a year and which we might not
desire to keep in existence for more than two or three years.

I shall be discussing this matter with Mr. R. J. Thompson [4], the
British representative on the Permanent Committee of the
International Institute of Agriculture, next week and will
communicate with you again after that conversation. As I am the
Chairman of the Agricultural Economics Committee of the Empire
Marketing Board and the Australian representative on the
Consultative Economic Committee of the League of Nations, it would
probably be as well for me to represent Australia on this new
Committee should it be appointed and should you finally decide to
be represented.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL