[Written from Geneva]

My dear Prime Minister,

This week we have the sudden departure of Major Marr [1], and the
fiasco which ensued. We have had oceans more oratory, for to my
great surprise, I find that set speeches are the Assembly
Committee style, and I have had to suffer several, of from three-
quarters of an hour to an hour. No one seems to be able to move a
resolution or even to correct some minor drafting mistake, without
protesting his love for the League, and assuring his bored
colleagues of his country's attachment to the spirit of Geneva.

Since Major Marr left, I have been taking the Budget Committee-no.

4, in addition to no. 2. On the economic side of the Second
Committee, matters move in a rather interesting way. The
resolutions in favour of a Tariff Truce and an International
Conference for tariff revision has led to some interesting
statements.

I spoke on Friday and will send you a copy of my speech when I
receive a corrected, draft. I moved two resolutions, one for an
Economic Survey, and one (at the request of the Secretariat) for
the keeping up to date of a collection of papers on Monetary and
Central Banking Laws, the original printing of which will be paid
for by a Rockefeller grant.

I made a very strong plea for the recognition of the fact that
while the oversea State Members of the League did not desire to
make it difficult for European countries to come to arrangements
for the mutual adjustment of their tariffs, we could not in the
present stage of our development be expected to take the same
view. I also spoke against the tendency to speak of the League of
Nations as being tied to the economic doctrine of Free Trade.

Ireland and Canada have taken similar lines, and India will do so
to-morrow.

Much the most interesting development, however, is the move
towards economic solidarity in Europe. Here Great Britain stands
in a curious position. She desires the lowering of European
tariffs but is not at all happy over the idea of this being
associated with a series of European industrial ententes. London,
however, is insistent that France will not be a party to a Tariff
holiday without the ententes. This came out very clearly in the
private meeting of the no. 2 Drafting Committee, of which I am a
member.

I think the economic tendencies apparent this year are so
important that I shall draw up a special report on the subject and
send it to you, although I do not think it can be done until after
I return from Rome.

As I promised in my last letter, I am enclosing verbatim copies of
Graham's [2] speech, and that portion of Major Marr's speech which
deals with the economic questions. I do not expect you will have
time to read them, but it may prove useful to the Government to
have them available. I have marked those portions of Graham's
speech where he emphasises the British Empire point of view that
the proposals to lower tariffs are the affairs of Europe.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL