3rd June, 1926
PERSONAL CONFIDENTIAL
(Due to arrive Melbourne-3.7.26)
My dear P.M.,
I think I should tell you that Henderson [1], in his private letters to me, does not seem to be very happy. In fact he hinted in a recent letter that he felt that he did not want to continue in the appointment after the end of this year. I gather that his main trouble is that he is under the Secretary to your P.M.’s Department [2], whereas he feels that his Branch should be autonomous, answering direct to yourself I do not know how things are working out at his end, but I can imagine that if he is interfered with by the Secretary of the P.M.’s Department, the position would be rather anomalous and difficult.
I have naturally not told Henderson that I am writing you about this, but I think you ought to know, as I take it that you will not want to lose him over a comparatively small point. [3]
I do not know whom you have in mind to replace me here at the end of the year. [4] I expect you will bring someone home with you for the purpose. I have mentioned Longfield Lloyd [5] (representative of the Attorney-General’s Department in Sydney-Major Jones’ [6] man) to you before, as I think he would do the job well and he is already a Civil Servant. However, he has no means outside his pay, although that is far from being a primary consideration, particularly if you increase the salary here to, say, 1,250. I need not say that I have no interest in Lloyd other than thinking him an able, energetic-minded man, and an unusual type for an Australian Civil Servant. Also he has some considerable knowledge of Japanese, which he has learnt in his own time. This would possibly make him of use in the Far East later on. [6]
I am, Yours sincerely, R. G. CASEY
_1 Dr Walter Henderson, Head of the External Affairs Branch.
2 P. E. Deane, Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department.
3 In a reply dated 17 July (on file AA:A1420), Bruce praised Henderson very highly, understood Henderson’s dissatisfaction and was ‘almost convinced’ that Henderson should be given a grander title (‘something in the nature of an Under-Secretary’) and direct access to the Prime Minister.
4 In the same letter, Bruce expressed surprise but not dismay that Casey proposed to surrender the London post at the end of 1926, urging only that he remain until after the planned Imperial Conference.
5 Major E. E. Longfield Lloyd.
6 Major H. E. Jones, Director of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch and Security Section.
7 Lloyd in fact served as Australian Trade Commissioner in Japan 1935-37 and as Government Commissioner in Japan 1937-40.
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