My dear Prime Minister,

With the House not sitting and with a number of Ministers away on
holidays, there is nothing of any special interest to report this
week.

The preliminary final trade returns for Great Britain for 1926
have just been published and naturally make a very depressing
statement. It is noteworthy that the month of December was worse
than the month of November, so far as exports were concerned, in
spite of a fairly marked revival in the coal export trade.

I was speaking to Mr. J. H. Thomas [1] today and he commented upon
the extremely favorable impression which you had made in all
quarters during your visit, contrasting the result of your 1926
visit with that of 1923. Mr. Thomas tells me that he is very
interested in the whole question of Empire marketing and has asked
me to meet him next Tuesday to discuss some problems in relation
to marketing of apples.

In case you should desire to make any use of them, I am enclosing
herewith 6 verbatim copies of your speech to the British Farmers.

I have sent a copy to Mr. Paterson [2] but I thought you might
care to distribute some of the others to members of the Cabinet.

IMPERIAL ECONOMIC COMMITTEE

So far as the Imperial Economic Committee is concerned, I am not
aware as to whether Chadwick [3] has finally decided to accept the
offer which Amery [4] has made to him for the position of
Secretary. I certainly hope that he will agree to act.

Mackinder [5] has gone to New York and will not be back until the
first week in February, when it is proposed to have the first
meeting of the Committee.

In the meantime a Sub-Committee on Eggs and Honey is sitting and
getting to a stage when its report can be considered.

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD

The first meeting of the Main Board in the New Year will, I think,
be held on the 2nd February and I have arranged that the
confirmation by the Board of the proposal to establish, on a 50-50
basis, a Tropical Agricultural Station in Northern Australia will
be on the Agenda. I will cable to you as soon as the meeting has
taken place.

THE LIBERAL PARTY

To any one with your experience of politics, the enclosure
entitled 'A Liberal Document' will be a source of very
considerable amusement. It is amazing that any one officially
connected with the Liberal Party could have issued such a
statement to the press.

Yours sincerely,
F. L. MCDOUGALL