My dear Mr. Bruce,

It is quite unnecessary for me to tell you how frightfully sorry I
am that you should have had so bitter an experience during the
last week. [1] I feel sure, however, that you will not allow the
situation to worry you, because you will feel that, having seen
the right thing to do, you attempted to carry it out regardless of
consequences. No man has given Australia more devoted, unsparing
and sustained service than you have. The news of the result in
Flinders must have been horribly disappointing. Everyone here is
most upset about it. I do, however, most sincerely hope that
circumstances will enable you shortly to lead an effective and
constructive opposition. I feel pretty sure that, if this becomes
possible, you will take the line of assuring to the Government
warm cooperation as long as it is attempting sincerely to solve
Australia's present problems along lines in which it is possible
to offer any measure of cooperation.

The position in regard to Imperial affairs is I think extremely
urgent. I do not know what your personal relations with Mr.

Scullin are but if, as I very much hope, they are good, I cannot
help thinking that it would be a most useful thing if you were to
make him aware of the amazing opportunity which he can take, if he
chooses, at the next Imperial Conference or Imperial Economic
Conference.

So far as I can see, there will be no one effectively to state the
case from an overseas point of view in regard to Empire
development, unless Mr. Scullin determines to do it. Mackenzie
King [2] will not be able to relieve himself of the handicap of
his obsession with the questions of Canada's status; Sir Joseph
Ward [3] is not, I believe, highly effective; Hertzog [4] and
Cosgrave [5] cannot and, of course, India certainly is not in a
position to give any lead. I therefore feel that the opportunity
for Mr. Scullin to follow the lines which you would probably have
adopted is one which is much too good for him to neglect. I do not
know to what extent he has studied the problems and I naturally
hope that he will realise that one will be only too glad to have
the opportunity of giving him whole-hearted assistance in making
the very best use of the opportunities which will be created when
the Conference meets.

I have, of course, no idea what the attitude of the new Government
will be in regard to my work. I can only hope, both from a
personal and from a public point of view, that they will be
prepared to allow me to continue my work without any very
substantial change, for I think I can claim, without egoism, that
my work is of real and substantial significance to Australia and
to the general cause of Empire development. The position in London
is, I think, quite definite. If the Board of Trade, the Department
of Overseas Trade, or the Economic side of the Dominions Office,
want to ascertain what is likely to be the general overseas
reaction to a certain line of country, they tend to consult me
because they appear to find that they can get a clearer
presentation of the overseas point of view than from any other
Dominion representative in London. The same sort of thing occurs
on the Empire Marketing Board and on the Imperial Economic
Committee. In regard to the application of scientific research to
Empire problems, just the same sort of position exists; then,
during the last eighteen months, it has become quite clear that,
at Geneva, I have been able to represent, in a way that no one
else has done, the attitude of the less industrialised overseas
countries and have thus been able to challenge the domination in
the League's economic activities of a European point of view and
of the dangerous tendency of the League to become associated with
the single economic doctrine of free trade.

I would give a great deal at the present moment for an opportunity
of a discussion with you but that being impossible, I shall,
probably in conjunction with Casey [6], send you a private cable
at the weekend asking some advice.

In concluding this letter there are two things that I should
particularly like to say. First of all, I want to thank you for
the confidence that you have given me and for the opportunities of
doing the work which I have found intensely interesting and which
I hope you have found really useful. To me the opportunity of
serving you has been a very great pleasure. The second thing I
should like to say is that I shall look forward, with great
eagerness, towards a time when it may be possible for me once
again to serve you and, through you, Australia to the limit of my
capacity.

Please give my kind regards to Mrs. Bruce and please accept
yourself this expression of my most sincere regards and warm
admiration.

Yours very sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL