Dear Mr. Bruce,

Owing to the holidays, there has been little doing during the last
fortnight.

So far as I can judge, the Government ended the session in a very
much stronger position than when the Autumn meetings started.

Convinced as one is that Mr. Baldwin [1] is not very able nor very
quick in the uptake, yet one must admire the way on which he rises
to the occasion and from all accounts he handled the House of
Commons extremely well over the Mosul Debate. [2] The good
atmosphere for the Government was due to Locarno [3], the Irish
adjustment [4] and finally to Mosul and they escaped from severe
criticism on economic matters and on their failure to do much for
Empire trade.

You may remember from my earlier letters that when I reached
London last January (1925), one of my earliest experiences was a
lecture from Cunliffe-Lister [5] on the great advantage of a
1,000,000 annual grant for the stimulation of Empire trade over
the preferences which His Majesty's Government had felt bound to
drop. He clearly desired to impress on me that the main use of the
1,000,000 would be ADVERTISING. I ventured to express
considerable scepticism, but he eagerly gave me chapter and verse
for the triumphs of advertisement. I think I also told you that a
number of journalists informed me that Mr. Amery [6] had assured a
private meeting of newspaper men that at least 500,000 out of the
annual grant would be spent on newspaper advertising. In personal
discussion I did not find Amery nearly as rapturous as Cunliffe-
Lister over advertisement but he obviously thought this the best
possible method of spending the bulk of the million.

When the work of the Imperial Economic Committee started, I had a
number of bright ideas about insurance and finance in connection
with the 1,000,000 but I found that the personnel of the
Committee at that stage would not have been in the least
sympathetic and I therefore came to feel that we had better do
what we could along the lines of Identification, Publicity and
Research. I have sent you full particulars of the ideas which I
have formed as to the value of publicity aimed at educating the
British people as to the importance of the Empire to themselves.

The awkward thing now is the changed attitude of the Government
here. They appear to regard the proposal to spend 650,000 on
publicity as being a most revolutionary proposal and they are
fighting shy of the proposed Executive Commission.

So far as I can gather, their idea appears to be that, instead of
an Executive Commission charged with carrying into effect the
whole of such recommendation of the Imperial Economic Committee as
may be approved in principle by the Government, a council of
Ministers should consider any concrete and practical suggestions
made by the Imperial Economic Commiteee, and should distribute the
appropriate executive action among the various existing
departments, the whole to be under the constant check and
supervision of the Treasury.

The whole Committee will regard such action as being profoundly
unsatisfactory. I very much hope that the Government will modify
their supposed present attitude and will accept in principle our
recommendations. If they had vision they would certainly give the
proposals an enthusiastic welcome both on national and also upon
political grounds.

SIR JAMES COOPER [7]

I learnt from Forsyth [8] of the New Zealand Meat Board that the
New Zealand Government were approaching Sir James Cooper in
connection with the London Agency of the New Zealand Butter Board.

I therefore asked Sir James for information. He told me that the
New Zealand High Commissioner [9] was urging him to accept a
watching brief for the New Zealand Government on the Butter Agency
at a salary of 1,500 a year for a small proportion of his time.

He told me that he had refused but that Sir James Allen had also
refused to take 'no' for an answer.

MEAT SHIPMENTS

I enclose some figures of Australian Meat shipments given me by
Forsyth, of the New Zealand Meat Board. He says that Australia by
shipping huge quantities of lamb on the market in October and
November has driven prices far lower than they need have fallen.

If the Australian export trade in lamb and mutton is going to
revive, it would seem very necessary to have some arrangement
analogous with that of the New Zealand Meat Board for the
regulation of shipments.

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION

I enclose a question asked on the last day of the session, which
will interest you. I would particularly draw attention to the
Prime Minister's reply to the supplementary question. [10]

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL