Dear Mr. Bruce,

Ministers here continue to take their Christmas vacation. I think
a Conservative administration fully understands the art of
relaxation. Mr. Amery [1] is in Switzerland, and Cunliffe-Lister
[2] in Yorkshire. There has been little news of moment except the
reports of a possible Imperial Conference in October. Although I
understand you favour this, I am very doubtful whether, from an
economic standpoint, it would be very useful. The British
Government, apart from passing the abridged version of the
preferences, has done very little and I feel that they should be
urged to do something tangible before their policy, or lack of
policy, comes before the bar of an Imperial Economic Conference.

Perhaps you feel that you would like to take a personal hand in
the urging! Although that would be extremely effective, I feel
that the Government ought to act before being forced in an obvious
way.

Perhaps the idea will be for an Imperial Conference purely on
Foreign policy. That is a subject entirely beyond my ken but I
hope that every Imperial Conference will mean an Economic
Conference also.

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

We are at last at grips with the drafting of the Fruit Report and
I hope it may be complete about the end of this month. It will
certainly be a larger document than either of the previous
reports. I expect it will, inter alia, deal with finance of
growers, control by producers' organization, abuses by Commission
salesmen, and will also, I very much hope, set out most clearly
the great advantage to (a) migration (b) the British export trade
if stable markets can be found for the products of the small
producer.

IMPERIAL DINING CIRCLE

At my suggestion, we have formed an Imperial Dining Circle. The
members consist of the Imperial Economic and the Imperial Shipping
Committees. The idea is to dine monthly and to invite useful
Members of Parliament as guests. We had the first dinner last
night. Ormsby-Gore [3] was the principal guest, his subject
'Colonies and Dependencies' and he spoke very well indeed. The
discussion was most useful.

In case there is a Conference this year, may I now book you as
principal guest for a dinner in October? I'm sure it would be a
useful occasion.

MR. ORMSBY-GORE

Today I had a very long discussion with Mr. Ormsby-Gore. He leaves
for a five months trip to West Africa in a few days time. I urged
him to try before he left to inspire Mr. Amery with a
determination to see some real use made of the Imperial Economic
Committee and some effect given to the First Report of that body.

He confirmed my feeling that Churchill [4] carries too many guns
for Mr. Amery or for Cunliffe-Lister and gave me to understand
that, while he would do everything he could, he was very worried
about the inertia of the Government on Imperial Economic subjects.

We further discussed other means of getting the Government to
action. He feels that the most hopeful way is by educating
members. He also thought a full dress debate might be staged in
the House of Lords early in next session.

I have formed a very high opinion of Ormsby-Gore's ability. He
has, as you know, rather a bad manner but I think he is becoming
more generally liked in the House.

THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH INDUSTRIES

I heard today that the Grand Council of the F.B.I. had adopted the
letter (a copy of which I sent you last week) [5] and that it will
be issued to the press on Friday. [6] I hope this will help to
galvanize the Government towards action.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL