17th November, 1929
PERSONAL
My dear McDougall,
I have been trying to write to you since the election but the volume of my correspondence has slightly overwhelmed me. The reason for my desire was to express to you my great appreciation of the invaluable help and assistance you have given me ever since we joined forces in 1923. At both the 1923 and 1926 Conferences you were invaluable and the work you have done in London and the letters you have so regularly sent me over a long period of years have been of tremendous help to me. I am afraid at times you must have felt, owing to the impossibility of my replying to your letters as I would have wished to do, that your efforts were not appreciated. If you ever had such a thought I hope you will cast it from your mind. Your letters were a tremendous help, and stimulus to me, and for the great work you have done I have the profoundest admiration.
I believe you have served Australia and the Empire well, and when the problem of Inter-Imperial trade comes to be solved, as surely as it will be, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that no one has contributed more in creating the public opinion which is necessary for such a solution. Of your work for C.S.I.R. and the D. & M. Commission, I say no more than that you have won the confidence and esteem of such men as Julius [1], Gepp [2], Rivett [3] and Richardson [4], and I am sure this will more than compensate for all your arduous labours on their behalf I believe that the continuance of your work in London is essential, and I have tried to make my successor [5] so realise.
Whether I convinced him time alone will show. In any event you have now so established yourself in London that opportunities will present themselves for you to continue your work for the great cause you have espoused, even if it is in a new sphere of activity.
I trust it will be in the same one, and that some time in the future we will again be working together and will then see the accomplishment of those things for which we have so long been fighting.
I am leaving for England on December 3rd and will hope to see a lot of you while there. I have cabled to Casey [6] saying that I hope you and he will not entirely drop me now I am out of the fighting line.
With all good wishes, and again my sincere thanks for all the help you have given me.
Yours sincerely, (Sgd) S. M. BRUCE
_1 George Julius, Chairman of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
2 H. W. Gepp, Chairman of the Commonwealth Development and Migration Commission.
3 David Rivett, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
4 A. E. V. Richardson, Professor of Agriculture and Director of the Waite Agricultural Research Institute, University of Adelaide;
member of the Executive of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
5 J. H. Scullin, Prime Minister 1929-32.
6 R. G. Casey, Commonwealth Government’s Liaison Officer in London.
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