(Due to arrive Canberra 20.4.29)

My dear P.M.,

After reading the Industrial Mission's report and after talking
with some of the members of the Mission [1]-the immediate work
that I am doing drops (a well-chosen word) into proper
perspective. The urgent tasks before you are domestic and I can
well understand how annoyed you must be from time to time at
having your attention distracted by External Affairs, which must
be regarded, on a balanced view, as being of subsidiary
importance.

I am appalled at the problems that face you-the urgent necessity
for getting down the cost of production whilst maintaining the
standard of living on a scale that will keep the people contented-
the necessity for development coupled with the necessity for the
curtailment of borrowing abroad-the urgency of finding profitable
markets abroad for our surplus products-the discovery of the truth
about the effects of the tariff on the prosperity of the country-
the resolving of the position as between capital and labour.

I can well imagine that you have your own mind fairly clear as to
what are likely to prove the real solutions of many of these
difficulties although you are hampered in putting them into effect
by political considerations. Remedies can only be put into effect
slowly, otherwise they would not be acceptable to the general
public who would not understand the basic reasons behind the
scaling down of their general standards. A government that tries
to introduce remedies too quickly is liable to defeat, and any
government that succeeded yours would be unlikely to tackle these
questions at all-as they will be unpopular and difficult to defend
and push through.

I have seen McDougall's [2] letter to you by this mail, asking for
your views as to the line you would propose to take as regards
economic matters at the next Imperial Conference. If there is any
particular line of country that you would like me to explore and
work up, on the non-economic side, I would be glad to know as far
ahead as possible.

I got the first of the weekly letters from Simpson [3] by this
last mail and, as I have written him in reply, will welcome such a
useful source of information. They will lighten my darkness
considerably.

Mr. Houghton [4], the American Ambassador, leaves London in a
week's time. It is said that General Dawes [5] is to succeed him
but this is unofficial as yet.

Sir Hugo Hirst [6] has modified his attitude towards the American
interests holding shares in the General Electric Company and is
now in negotiation with them. Evidently considerable pressure was
brought to bear on him, and possibly retaliation was threatened.

Mention has been made in the press of some sort of restrictive
action on the part of the C.P.R. and the Burmah Corporation,
designed to maintain British control of these enterprises.

This year sees the opening of a lot of important civil air routes.

London to India starts in a fortnight, London to the Cape probably
within six months. And Perth-Adelaide and your other extensions in
Australia during the year.

I am not sending you information about the disturbed conditions in
Afghanistan and Mexico. The latter really does not interest us at
all-and as regards Afghanistan we are only broadly interested in
the final result-a settlement or an extension of the disturbance
in which the Government of India and/or the Soviets might become
involved.

The story that you are coming over here as High Commissioner is
again current over here-having come from Australia. I always say
that I have no word of it and that, in the present (or conceivable
future) political circumstances, I can't imagine how it would be
possible.

The Foreign Office are thrilled by the fact that Prince George [7]
has been attached to the Western Department as from today. I
haven't been over there to meet him yet, but I have an invitation
from the Department to do so at an early date. Campbell [8], the
head of the Western Department, being away for a month, Allen
Leeper [9] (as second man in the Department) has the job of
initiating the Prince into the mysteries of the office.

The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York have been seeing all
Foreign Office and Dominions Office papers of importance for some
time. One hears that the Duke of York takes a good deal more
interest in them than the Prince.

An amusing aspect of the incident about the War Office document
[10], that I have since been told, was that no less than three
copies of this particular paper found their way to General
Chauvel! [11] Rowe [12] (Australian Military Liaison Officer),
Colonel Plant [13] (Australian exchange officer employed in the
War Office and who was Secretary of this War Office Coast Defence
Committee) and myself-all sent copies! I don't suppose three
copies of any important paper from separate sources have ever gone
to Australia before. I expect it was this fact that temporarily
enraged General Milne. [14]

I have not bothered you much in these personal letters with
Antarctic matters, as the extent to which you should be asked to
bother about the subject should be limited to deciding on the
Expedition, and convincing Cabinet of the necessity for it. [15]
But in the last twelve months I have covered the subject most
fully in 'Dear Sir' letters, and your files on Antarctic matters
should be as complete as anything here. I have been in constant
touch with Mawson [16] and have cabled you very fully in an effort
to co-ordinate the views of your Australian Antarctic Committee
[17] (J. K. Davis [18], Masson [19], etc.) and the
Interdepartmental Committee and Mawson here. In this last week, I
have used strong and unequivocal language in my telegrams in an
effort to convince your advisers of the necessity for a two years'
expedition, and of routeing it from here to the Cape, covering the
Queen Mary-Enderby Land sector in the first season and the Ross
Sea-Queen Mary Land sector in the second season. I hope this will
have been definitely decided on by telegram before this reaches
you. The job of even looking at this tremendous coast line (over
3,000 miles) would make a single season expedition a most cursory
effort. A certain amount of flag planting is all that could be
done in one season, but the term 'flag planting' has been used as
synonymous with 'consolidating British sovereignty'-and to effect
the latter something more serious than simple landings and placing
of flags has to be effected, such as charting the coast line and
some attempts at serious contributions towards the scientific
knowledge of the area. Also, for our own economic reasons we will
want to carry out some rough census of the whale, seal and penguin
life of our sector. This all points to a two years' expedition at
the least. It would seem to me a waste of effort and opportunity
to outfit the 'Discovery', take her laboriously halfway round the
world for a mere few months' hurried flag planting, that could
easily be put in the shade by the Americans and others. The
additional expense of the second season's work would be
inconsiderable.

I am giving a meal for Mawson next week. Mr Amery [20], Sir
Charles Close (President of the Geographical Association), Sir
Hugo Hirst (possible favours to come, in respect of the
Expedition!), J. M. Niall [21], C. V. Sale (Governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company), Tom Jones [22] (as Secretary, Committee of
Civil Research) and one or two others will be there. The High
Commissioner [23] was coming but has to do an official luncheon on
that day.

It is a great pity that the romantic title of the Hudson's Bay
Company has given way to the present short, business-like style.

It used to be 'The Governor and Company of Gentlemen Adventurers
of England trading into Hudson's Bay'. They are most interested in
our forthcoming expedition and, as I have said elsewhere, are
anxious to be allowed to participate with local Australian
interests in the exploitation of the seals and penguins on our
Antarctic coastline. They are in course of developing a technique
of treatment for hair seal skins, which Mawson thinks will make
the Antarctic hair seal population a most valuable asset. Hair
seals, so Mawson says, abound in the Australian Antarctic sector
but have hitherto been regarded as of little value. The new
Hudson's Bay Company process is said to give them a value
approaching that of the fur seal.

I have had an astonishing telegram from Wilkins [24], New York:-

Would be much obliged if you could ascertain from Technical Staff
Submarine Section whether they believe submarine could cross
Arctic Ocean. If they believe it possible may come to Europe to
investigate possibilities. Best regards thanks for arranging boat
fares.

On the face of it, this appears to be a wildcat idea, but I am
taking it up privately with the appropriate people in the
Admiralty. He cannot mean to dive under the ice on one side of the
Arctic and reappear on the other side two thousand miles away. He
must know that there is some open water some way inside the Arctic
circle and evidently has it in mind to dive under the intervening
ice as a means of progressing towards the North Pole, continuing
the enterprise by foot progress over the ice from the most
northerly open water. Even this appears rather a harebrained
scheme, but I will see what they have to say about it. I imagine
that he doesn't want this to have any publicity as yet.

I enclose copy of a letter from Simonds [25] (prominent American
press man in London) to the 'National Review' on the objective of
American sea power. He is anti-British in feeling, and this letter
expresses very well the point of view of that section of the
American public.

It looks now (after the Root [26]-Sir Cecil Hurst [27]
conversations at Geneva) as if the United States would find itself
able to join the World Court. [28]

Interminable meetings are still taking place in Cabinet Sub-
Committees and elsewhere on Anglo-American relations, under the
well-known three headings, Arbitration, Belligerent Rights and
Naval Limitation. There is a Geneva Limitation of Armaments
meeting about Easter and the British delegate (Cushendun [29]) is
in course of being primed. The Government, for domestic election
reasons, is making as sure as it can that they are not branded at
Geneva with the stigma of a breakdown-a tribute to the influence
that the League of Nations Union has achieved! Nothing of any
importance of course can come out of the Geneva meeting, and the
British representative will stand back as much as possible, but it
is felt that in view of the Washington Disarmament Conference in
1931, the ball must be kept rolling however slowly, as a definite
breakdown would provide a bad atmosphere for Washington.

As to arbitration, there are, as you know, very definitely two
schools here-one for accepting the American draft treaty
practically as it is and letting Belligerent Rights, if necessary,
go to Arbitration-and the Admiralty school who are violently
opposed to this course. This cannot really be decided until the
Imperial Conference. All-in arbitration, however praiseworthy the
tribunal, must stick in the throat of Australia owing to the fear
of White Australia some day becoming a gambit. If this country
concludes an all-in Arbitration Treaty with America, there is the
danger that she may have to do the same thing with Japan-or Italy.

Chamberlain [30] has been engaged in trying to evolve a scheme for
the composition of a Tribunal before which we would be reasonably
safe in going to arbitration even on the most contentious points.

He has tentatively sketched out a Tribunal consisting of an
American and an Englishman and a nominee of each country, presided
over by the Lord Chancellor and the President of the American
Supreme Court alternatively. This to show you how their minds are
working.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R.G. CASEY

[Handwritten postscript]

This is regarded as particularly secret at present.