Dear Mr. Bruce,

The mail this week is only a supplementary one and will reach
Melbourne about two days in advance of the regular mail going next
week. I am therefore economising my time and am not writing at any
length today.

I have written you, under separate cover, a letter in reference to
Lord Salisbury's [1] visit to Australia with the Parliamentary
Delegation.

At the request of the Committee of Members of the House of
Commons, of which I have written to you recently [2], I drafted a
series of Parliamentary questions, which amounted to about 20 in
number, referring to the recommendations of the last Imperial
Economic Conference. Some of these questions have now been asked
and replies given. I enclose extracts from Hansard of all those
that have so far been asked.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

The Empire Marketing Board yesterday approved, in principle, an
expenditure of 120,000 on advertising during the coming six
months. This advertising is to be of a general educational nature
and will follow in a general way the lines of the memorandum which
was presented to the Publicity Committee and of which I sent you a
copy with my letter of 24th June.

Mr. Pick [3], of the Underground, who has been co-opted to the
Publicity Committee, is going to prove of immense value to us and
at the first full meeting of the Publicity Committee, which was
held last Friday, he immediately showed his value.

At the request of Mr. Ormsby-Gore [4], the Chairman of this
Committee, I had outlined the general idea of a preliminary
educational poster campaign. Mr. Pick was then asked to express
his views and he said that, after studying the memorandum and
listening to what I had to say, he had come to the conclusion that
what we wanted to do was to have an economic geography of the
British Empire and show it to the people of Great Britain by means
of a number of pictures and a few words. I can hardly imagine a
happier summing up of the idea we have had in mind.

The general attitude of the Publicity Committee was that it would
be very dangerous for the Empire Marketing Board to become
responsible for the advertising of any commodity which was not of
high and uniform quality and in regular supply. While it is not
possible to quarrel with the general soundness of this dictum, it
does point out in the clearest way the limitations as to the
extent to which the Empire Marketing Board's publicity can assist
Empire industries. The young and struggling industry which has not
achieved complete organization, the quality of whose produce is
variable and in which grading and packing have not reached a high
level, will not be able to receive very much direct assistance
through publicity.

This reinforces my general point of view that the publicity
campaigns which we are about to start must largely be aimed at so
educating the British electorate as to cause a change of heart on
fiscal matters.

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE

I am very much hoping that the Imperial Conference will not be
postponed. If a full Imperial Conference cannot be arranged owing
to the Canadian position [5], I should have thought it desirable
to have proceeded with an Imperial Economic Conference.

I spoke to Mr. Amery [6] about this yesterday at the Empire
Marketing Board Meeting. It is quite clear that Mr. Amery is most
anxious for a Conference.

One of my main reasons for desiring a Conference is because I am
looking forward most anxiously to seeing you in London and having
the opportunity of discussing two large series of questions,
namely
(a) Empire trade and development
(b) The organization of Australian marketing.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL