Dear Mr. Bruce,

In my last letter to you I described a talk with Mr. T. Johnston
[1], M. P. The thing that struck me as being the most significant
was the impression which his Indian visit made upon Johnston. He
is a puritanical fellow, of the stuff the Scottish covenanters
were made of and certain things in India horrified him: the
blatant avowedness of prostitution under British rule:

the failure to make primary education more general. On balance,
however, as a Britisher, even if of the left wing of labour, he
felt that he had more to be proud of than ashamed over British
rule in India.

He described the Swaraj party as being utterly incompetent and
reactionary and said that the idea of India-a nation was absurd at
the present time.

I feel sure that this information (which is for you personally)
will interest you.

SAFEGUARDING ENQUIRIES

I enclose copy of a letter which I sent to the 'Times' on this
subject and also a schedule of the figures upon which I based my
letter.

I did not sign the letter as I felt it was trenching upon the
question of domestic protection. I think it may be of some use in
spreading the idea of the value of Empire Markets. [2]

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF THE EMPIRE

I enclose the VII article from the 'Times Trade Supplement' on
this subject. [3]

LAYTON'S ARTICLES FROM 'MANCHESTER GUARDIAN'

Mr. W. T. Layton, the Editor of the 'Economist', has published two
articles in the 'Manchester Guardian' which I enclose. I also
enclose a copy of a signed letter which I have just sent to the
'Manchester Guardian' answering Layton which, I hope, the
'Manchester Guardian' will publish. As my letter is a fairly
useful statement of the opposite side of the case, it is more than
possible that the 'Manchester Guardian' will suppress it, although
this paper is far fairer to its fiscal opponents than the other
Liberal Free Trade papers. I would suggest that you read Layton's
articles carefully. He will be one of the British representatives
on the International Economic Conference at Geneva. He is a
recognised force on the Free Trade side and I should imagine
represents pretty well the British Treasury point of View. [4]

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

I enclose some interesting Parliamentary questions and answers.

AUSTRALIAN APPLES

So far, the Australian apple season illustrates most of the points
to which the Imperial Economic Committee draw attention in the
Fruit Report.

The fruit is arriving in very large quantities with no attempt
being made to regulate the quantitites placed on each market. I
understand that this week four steamers are discharging Australian
apples at Hull alone! It is no one's business to place a portion
in cold storage and, as a result, prices have collapsed in a most
unfortunate way. This is illustrating the truth of the saying that
without 'orderly marketing' a bounteous crop is a curse to the
producer.

The Imperial Economic Committee says, in effect, 'you producers
cannot expect satisfactory results unless you are prepared to (a)
organize (b) have effective representation in the United Kingdom
to control the distribution of your fruit'. The present average
price of Australian apples is, I suppose, 9/- per case: with
proper regulation and attention to quality, it would be anything
from 12/- to 14/- per case-the difference between profit and loss.

Unfortunately all is not well with the quality of the fruit. I
received a letter yesterday from Sir Algernon Firth, a copy of
which I enclose, and to which I would direct your special
attention. Firth was for five years the Chairman of the Associated
Chambers of Commerce. He is a most zealous Imperialist, and, as
you know, is the Senior Member of the British representation on
the Imperial Economic Committee.

It is most essential that the producer and the Government
inspectors in Australia should realise that all the money spent on
publicity will be wasted, every attempt to establish Voluntary
Preference will be in vain, unless the goods sent here are of good
quality, well packed and carefully graded. I cannot exaggerate the
importance of continual insistence upon this point. Firth's letter
is so clear that you may find it useful in pressing this point
home.

MR. AMERY [5]

I had half an hour with Mr. Amery this morning. My main purpose
was to put before him Tom Johnston's ideas as to the value of
Labour Members of Parliament visiting parts of the Empire in the
next twelve months. Mr. Amery was very interested and proposes to
review the Colonies to which delegations could usefully be sent. I
found that Mr. Amery considered the Fruit Report of the Imperial
Economic Committee as a great advance on the previous reports. He
told me that the Empire Marketing Board is held up owing to the
Civil Servant, whom he has selected to act as Secretary, being
temporarily engaged in the Coal negotiations. Amery hopes to hold
a first meeting about May 12th.

THE BUDGET

From our point of view the Budget is not of very special interest.

The only point that Amery was able to secure was the stabilization
of preference for a period of ten years. This is, of course, a
move in the right direction but cannot be of any substantial
advantage to Australia except perhaps in fixing the 4/- per gallon
preference on sweet wine. It will be invaluable to the Empire
tobacco grower for the preference on tobacco is greater than the
intrinsic value of the raw tobacco itself. I wonder whether there
is any chance of a substantial development of the tobacco industry
in Australia.

In the discussions on the budget, Commander Hilton Young [6] made
two excellent Imperial points. One was that Trade facilities
should be confined to Empire Development and the other was a
summing up of the situation in a thoroughly satisfactory manner so
far as I am concerned. If you do not read the speech in the
Hansard, please read the four marked sentences in the extract
which I enclose.

DAIRY BOARD

I enclose a copy of an interview with Sir James Cooper [7]
published the 'Imperial Food Journal'.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL