Dear Mr. Bruce,

H.M. GOVERNMENT AND IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

No further definite news is forthcoming since my last letter but I
gather that the forecast I then gave you is still substantially
correct. I daresay you have already received cabled advices from
H.M. Government. I expect to know more tomorrow as Mr. Amery [1]
has written to ask me to see him then at 4 p.m.

I enclose some further Parliamentary answers on the subject.

I rather expect that Mr. Amery will ask me for my views as regards
the British farmer and the Annual Grant. If he does I shall, of
course, tell him that I can only express my personal point of view
and have no information of what you are thinking. I shall say
that, in my opinion, the initiative for any expenditure from the
Grant should come from Empire produce, but that, when substantial
supplies of a British product are on the market at the same time
as the Empire product, it would be in harmony with the views
expressed at the Imperial Economic Conference 1923 and with the
first report of the Imperial Economic Committee if the public were
urged to buy Empire produce, both Home and Overseas.

In the case of apples, for instance, during the Canadian apple
season, large British supplies are available, so I should
visualize advertisement based upon these words:

'Buy Empire apples'
'Home and Canadian supplies are now available'
In the Australian and New Zealand apple selling season, British
supplies are exhausted, so in our case the general idea would be
'Buy Empire apples'
'Australian and New Zealand supplies are now available'
I hope you won't imagine that my idea of advertisement would be as
dull as these words suggest but I'm trying to convey the general
idea.

The case of meat as usual presents special difficulties from an
advertising point of view. A campaign to 'Eat more meat' would
arouse the fierce condemnation of the medical profession and the
inclusion of 'Home' may present greater difficulties than in the
case cited above.

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

The work on the Fruit report still continues at high pressure. The
date of proposed publication has again been postponed.

The Coal Commission report is expected on March 5th and for some
days it will overshadow all other issues. [2]

Had Mackinder [3] really worked on the report during December and
early January, it could have been signed some weeks ago. It is a
far larger piece of work than either of its predecessors and the
ground has never been explored before. The present intention is to
get the report completed, approved and signed by about March 12th.

Mackinder has gone to the North for a couple of days and asked me
to draft several sections while he was away, so each evening I go
down to the Board of Trade and work with the Secretary. [4] I feel
sure that the report will be interesting but it will not be easy
to bring forward many substantial recommendations owing to the
impossibility of the present stage of doing anything except along
the lines of the first report.

FUTURE WORK OF THE IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

I shall take the opportunity of mentioning this question to Mr.

Amery tomorrow, on the lines on which I wrote to you in my last
letter.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

I am addressing their Imperial Affairs Committee tonight and will
send you an account of the meeting by the next mail.

TRADE UNIONS

Owing to the extreme pressure of Imperial Economic Committee work,
I have not completed the memorandum for Mr. Appleton [5], the
General Secretary, but shall be able to forward you a copy by next
mail.

MR. AMERY'S SPEECH

I enclose copy of a speech by Mr. Amery which will, I think,
interest you, especially the reference to Labour. In this
connection I am also enclosing a Parliamentary question and answer
with a series of supplementaries about International action on the
hours of labour.

AUSTRALIAN CANNED FRUIT

I have read with a good deal of interest some Australian newspaper
cuttings about the shipment of badly graded canned fruit. I
noticed that it was stated that Australian canners adopt one
standard of grading for the Australian market and another for
export. I am convinced that if this practice is continued it will
prove impossible to achieve really high standards of excellence
for export. The Australian canner is already handicapped by the
fact that his canning season is far shorter than in the United
States of America, where canners process vegetables and keep their
plants employed for more months than most of ours can work.

Under these circumstances if canners want to attain a high general
level of excellence, all fruit should be graded on one established
system whether intended for export or not. This matter is not my
business save in so far as a bad record for any Australian product
on the British market has an unfavourable influence on other
products.

SHIPPING

I enclose copy of an article on Shipping from the 'Economist' for
February 2oth. [6] I think it will interest you but I have marked
the portions to which I desire to draw your attention. Doubtless
shipowners have a pretty solid case against Australia after the
strike but the figures of freight rates appeared to me to be
interesting.

JOINT PUBLICITY SCHEME

I have been very interested in the definite proposals on this
subject and I hope that the scheme will be the prelude to some
definite linking together of the activities of the various boards.

Rumour in Australia House has it that your Government is going to
introduce Export Control legislation on meat, canned fruit and
fresh fruit. Whether this is the case or not, I naturally do not
know, but if it should be then I feel very strongly that general
policy should be in the hands of a body representative of all
interests. Any one of the London Agencies could, by quite a little
folly, raise a storm here which would have most unfortunate
results. Forsyth [7], of the New Zealand Meat Board, is living in
fear and trembling of the New Zealand Dairy Produce Control Board,
because he fears a foolishly forward policy from them. It seems to
me that if you increase the number of Control Boards, you should
arrange that, just as Publicity has been taken over on a joint
basis, so general policy should be taken over.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL