10th January, 1929
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
My dear P.M.,
I went to a dinner at the American Embassy on the night after I returned. It was an affair of twenty men representing a wide variety of interests, to welcome McCormick, the Editor-Proprietor of the ‘Chicago Tribune’ [1], which, as you probably know, is the most influential middle west (Chicago) paper in the States-and the most anti-British. McCormick is a young [2] and ignorant fellow which, I should think, has never yet stopped him from expressing an opinion on any subject.
The Ambassador [3] and his staff are always very cordial and the function was an interesting one.
Lord Lloyd [4] has played up very well indeed in the matter of looking after the several Australians to whom I have given introductions to him. In particular he has been most helpful and kind to J. M. Niall [5], whom he had to stay at The Residency for a week as well as arranging for him to be put up at The Residency at Khartoum, and other arrangements for his interest and comfort.
As Lloyd said to me when he was in London a few months ago-we should have no hesitation in giving prominent Australians introductions to him. He is a good Empire welder and always sends people away with a good opinion of themselves-and of him. He makes a point of taking them into a quiet corner and asking them in his husky voice what is the real truth about so-and-so!
I don’t quite see in what direction Lloyd’s future lies unless he gets the Viceroyship of India. [6] He is 50 this year and is a man of unceasing energy and ambition. He wants India very badly and I should think would be a good man for the job. I can’t see him as Governor-General of either Australia or Canada as he would have the utmost difficulty in effacing himself and would eat his heart out at not being able to influence events. He is married to (I think) a cousin of Lord Lascelles, who is quite adequate in every way, and thinks, which is very right and proper, that he is the best thing that has ever been produced. [7]
I enclose cuttings that may interest you, with regard to Barclays Bank opening up in Canada, and Sir D. Fraser’s [8] views as to the long term trend of money rates. Also a ‘Hankey’ [9] cutting, and a ‘Times’ review of Lady Bailey’s wonderful flight. [10]
You will be amused to hear that Wilkins has named a strait in Graham Land after me. The Naval Hydrographer asked me if I wanted it to go on the Admiralty Charts as R.G. Casey Strait so that there would be no doubt about it! [11]
I am, Yours sincerely, R.G. CASEY
_1 Colonel R. R. McCormick had served on General Pershing’s staff in France in 1917.
2 He was then aged 49.
3 Alanson Houghton.
4 High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan.
5 Managing Director of Goldsbrough, Mort and Co. Ltd.
6 Lloyd’s resignation was obtained by the new Labour Government in mid-1929, but his illiberal views had besides alienated Sir Austen Chamberlain, Foreign Secretary in the previous Conservative administration. He was not appointed Viceroy. See also Letters 77 and 207-9.
7 Lloyd had married the Hon. Blanche Lascelles, a cousin of Lord Lascelles, heir of the Earl of Harewood.
8 Sir Drummond Fraser, formerly Managing Director of the Manchester, Liverpool and District Bank.
9 Sir Maurice Hankey, Secretary to the Cabinet.
10 Lady Bailey, wife of South African business tycoon Sir Abe Bailey, had flown a de Havilland Cirrus Moth from England to South Africa in 1928.
11 In November 1928 Sir Hubert Wilkins made the first flight over Antarctica and during subsequent exploration from the air he named as Casey Channel one of several ice-filled areas which he thought separated Graham Land from the mainland and as well split it. In the mid-1930s it was found that these channels, including Casey Channel, did not in fact exist.
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