Dear Mr. Bruce,

At the time of writing the situation in regard to the Imperial
Conference is still obscure. It seems generally to be anticipated
here that the Conference will be postponed for about a fortnight
and that Canada will then be represented. [1] Until definite
information to the contrary is forthcoming, I must assume that you
will be adhering to your programme and leaving Melbourne on August
31st. Unless some definite development takes place, I shall
arrange to address you at Fremantle and Colombo by the appropriate
mails.

At the present moment a combination of circumstances is forcing me
to work at an extraordinary high pressure. At present there is the
drafting of the Dairy Produce Report, which is absorbing a great
deal of time and attention, in addition to the ordinary meetings
of the Imperial Economic Committee; then the Empire Marketing
Board in its initial stages is requiring constant attention and
long deliberation on the Board, on the Research and Publicity
Committees, and on the Sub-Committees.

This intense pressure will not last when the Empire Marketing
Board gets into its stride but I am sure that you will appreciate
that, as I have been taking a far keener interest in the whole
subject than any other member of the Overseas Delegations, the
Empire Marketing Board have come to rely upon me for large
contributions towards the original ideas both on publicity and on
research.

I believe I shall be correct in assuming that you will not want to
receive just prior to your departure from Australia any
considerable amount of information about either the Imperial
Economic Committee or the Empire Marketing Board. I feel that you
would rather have this information when you are at sea and free
from the hourly calls upon your time on matters of local and
pressing importance. I shall, therefore, concentrate upon giving
you adequate reports on what has occurred up to date at either
Fremantle, Colombo or at both places.

LORD SALISBURY'S [2] VISIT

With reference to my letter on this subject dated 14th July [3], I
now enclose a list of the names of prominent Australians which I
gave to Lord Salisbury. Those names which have an asterisk against
them are gentlemen to whom I am sending a personal letter asking
them to get into touch with Lord Salisbury during his stay in
Australia.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

I am today sending you the following cable:-

Reference Research proposals in Australian Budget speech. Research
Committee Empire Marketing Board hopes cooperate Empire scientific
research agricultural problems. Committee would greatly appreciate
information on nature and scope of Australian research proposals.

Can you arrange either post or bring same.

Reference Fruit Report. Dried Fruit Report paragraph 93. Empire
Marketing Board considering thorough investigation grub problem.

Please arrange to have all information as to research conducted in
Australia for prevention and cure of grubs in dried fruit
forwarded at early date.

The Research Committee of the Empire Marketing Board was extremely
interested in the proposal of the Australian Government to assist
the scientific and industrial research by a grant of �250,000 and
asked me whether I could personally communicate with you so that
full particulars as to the nature and scope of the use of this
grant, in so far as it affects agricultural research, might become
available at the earliest possible date to the Empire Marketing
Board.

The Research Committee feels that it could serve two very useful
purposes: firstly by means of grants, possibly on a 50-50 basis,
it hopes to be able to get important pieces of agricultural
research work done which would otherwise not have been undertaken
by Agricultural Research Institutions throughout the Empire and,
secondly, it hopes to coordinate agricultural research throughout
the Empire so as to avoid overlapping and definitely to establish
a system whereby the tentative results being obtained in one
Research Station may become immediately available to other
Stations.

I feel sure that you will be in sympathy with both these ideas and
I had little hesitation in consenting to send you the earlier part
of the above cable.

So far as the latter portion is concerned, you may be aware that
the grub problem is a serious menace to the Australian Dried Fruit
Industry.

The Imperial Economic Committee recommended that this was a
problem which the Empire Marketing Board should tackle and one of
the earliest decisions of the Empire Marketing Board was to
ascertain all the known facts upon the subject before embarking
upon definite expenditure towards the solution of the problem.

This explanation is sufficient to account for the latter part of
my cable.

On the Publicity side of the Empire Marketing Board's work very
considerable progress has been made during the last ten days and I
propose to let you have an adequate report to reach you during
your voyage.

I am closely associating myself with all the publicity work of the
Board in these early stages because I feel it to be of the utmost
importance that publicity should start upon the right lines.

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

Since my last letter the work of the drafting of the Dairy Produce
Report has definitely been taken in hand. The Drafting Committee
on this occasion consists of the Chairman [4], Mr. Wilson [5], one
of the Canadian Representatives, and myself. My Canadian colleague
and I have experienced the same type of irritation as Mr. Gubbay
[6], the Indian delegate, and I experienced on the drafting of the
Fruit Report.

The Secretary [7] produced a draft of about the first third of the
report, consisting of some 60 pages of typescript. This was
circulated to the Chairman and the other two members of the
Drafting Committee and six days later the first meeting of the
Drafting Committee took place. Both Mr. Wilson and I arrived at
the meeting with our copies of the draft fully annotated and
discovered that the Chairman had not even looked at the draft and
was quite prepared to sit down and read it for the first time in
our presence. At the present time the Chairman's duties, so far as
Imperial economic affairs are concerned, are not nearly as heavy
as those that I am undertaking and it is, to say the least,
disconcerting to find how little real attention he devotes to the
work of the Committee.

It is anticipated that the Dairy Produce Report will be signed on
about the 5th August and I hope it will be printed in time for me
to send you a copy to reach you at Colombo.

AMERICAN COMPETITION

For some time I have been intending to send you a memorandum on
the growth of American competitive power on the export trade of
the world. This has at last been completed and I am forwarding it
herewith. Probably you will not have time to consider this until
after you leave Melbourne but I hope that you will be able to read
it after that date.

I am hoping to prepare a complementary memorandum on the growth of
European competitive power from the most up to date statistics,
because I feel that when you are over here it will be very
advantageous for you to be in possession of the latest information
as to the position in which British industry will find itself if
it does not back a resolute attempt to develop the sheltered
markets of the Empire.

On Page 7 I have had compiled some statistics of which the final
column are entirely hypothetical but I think none the less of very
considerable interest. The note on page 8 explains why.

PARLIAMENTARY QUESTIONS

I enclose a series of Parliamentary questions and answers dealing
with inter-Empire trade and the work of the Imperial Economic

Conference of 1923, some of which you will find of interest.

I would particularly draw your attention to the debate in the
House of Commons on Palestine and East Africa Loans Bill in Vol.

198 No. 108 of the 21st July 1926. The whole debate is decidedly
interesting and worth your careful consideration.

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS

I enclose a cutting from the Westminster Gazette dealing with Dr.

Haden Guest's [8] Bill which was intended to share between
industry and labour the benefits conferred by the safeguarding of
industries measures.

EXPORT CONTROL

In my letter of the 8th July [9] I drew your attention to the
hostility shewn by the trade to the operations of the New Zealand
Co-operative Federation and to the anticipated policy of the New
Zealand Export Control Board.

I have today heard confidentially that the London Agency of the
New Zealand Dairy Produce Export Control Board after very careful
consideration has despatched a cable to New Zealand outlining the
way in which the Australian Dairy Produce Export Control Board
carries out its policy in London and strongly urging that the New
Zealand Board should abandon the idea of absolute control and
adopt the policy pursued by the London Agency of the Australian
Board. I expect that, in a few days' time, Mr. Clifford [10] and I
will send you a cable on this subject outlining the way in which
the Economic Committee will report on the operations of the Dairy
Produce Control Boards.

I enclose a copy of an article by Dr. Haden Guest from the current
number of the 'Review of Reviews' on the Fruit Report of the
Imperial Economic Committee. [11]

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL

P.S. Since I started to dictate this letter I have heard that the
Canadian Government has definitely asked for a ten days'
postponement of the date of the Imperial Conference. This looks as
though the Conference will definitely take place about the middle
of October and I am inclined to assume that, under these
circumstances, you will probably sail on the 31st August.