Dear Mr. Bruce,

Senator Wilson [1] has informed me that he has received a cable
from you about the duration of my work here, and a suggestion that
I should return with him on May 14th.

I presume that you anticipated that the Economic Conference
resolutions would have been dealt with in Parliament before that
date. As far as I can find out that will not be the case. The
Government have, apparently, not finally decided what action to
take, and the general impression among members that I have met is
that the preference questions will come on in two separate
debates, firstly on those that require no increase of duties and
secondly those that would require fresh taxes.

Under these circumstances it would appear to be important for me
to remain here until the questions are finally settled. I think I
can confidently say that I am doing useful work which no one else
can, at this stage, take over. I think I can also claim that I am
being sufficiently tactful to avoid giving any offence to any
party. This is, I think, illustrated by my being asked to meet
Free Traders as well as Protectionists and also Labour people.

This educational work will, I feel confident, bear fruit. It may
not have very much effect in the Division lobbies on the immediate
question but even there, if we can get ten or fifteen Liberals and
as many Labour to vote for the proposals, we may be able to get
some of them carried.

As regards the more permanent effects of this propaganda, if we
can get an Empire Group formed in the Labour Party, it will be
worth a great deal of labour (it's taking a good deal). The Labour
people I am seeing are very interested, are commencing to realise
the urgent necessity for migration, but are also very nervous of
the implications of 'Imperialism'. To overcome this requires
educational propaganda. If the Labour Empire Committee is formed,
I hope Australia will be able to arrange for effective information
to be placed at its disposal and I very much hope that the
intercourse with the Labour Party, including the entertainment of
Labour members on which I have been so keen, will be continued in
some form after my departure. This work requires a man with an
open mind. It is quite useless to approach Labour with dogmatic
assertions.

I was very interested to see in to-day's Times a brief cable
giving an outline of your speech at the Royal Agricultural Show,
Sydney. I assume that this speech is the beginning of a definite
scheme for the organisation of, and assistance to, Australian
primary production. [2]

So far as I can see there are three great objectives which
Australia requires to attain on the economic side.

1. Preferential advantages in Britain through
(a) Duties on articles that are not necessities.

(b) Other forms of preference on essential articles through the
medium of the proposed Imperial Economic Committee.

2. The organisation of marketing so as to assure to the producer
the highest possible share of the retail price paid by the
consumer, and to enable the price to the consumer to be
reasonable.

3. The settlement of the Exchange problem which is, at the present
moment, an intolerable burden upon trade. [3]

I hope that I shall be able to assist you in some small measure in
the first and second objectives.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL