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[V. Markham]
Elsfield Manor, Oxford.
4th October, 1932.
Private
Mrs. Carruthers, Portrack, Hollywood, Dumfries.
My dear Violet,
Susie showed me your letter, and I was most distressed to hear about Jim's accident. I am very glad that he is mending fast, but I am sorry to think that we are to see so little of you for some time in London.
Like you, I am rather anxious about public affairs. As you know, I am the most tepid of Tariff Reformers, but in the present mood of the world tariffs seem to me inevitable, and I do not think Ottawa has done much harm. One good thing it did. Our people argued on hard facts instead of in perorations, and Canada was made to sit up. If we are to have any executive cooperation within the Empire there must be more straightforward bargaining and less hot air.
I cannot quite see the logic of the resigning Liberal Ministers. If they swallowed the proposals of last March it seems to me that Ottawa was the logical consequence. I fancy that the tactical reasons were a good deal in Samuel's mind - he did not want a large section of Liberalism captured by Lloyd George. I regret his resignation on many grounds because he was a really competent Minister, and Archie Sinclair, too, was doing very well
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in Scotland.
What I have no doubt about is the blunder the Government has made in filling up the vacant offices. What is the good of kowtowing to the Simonites , who are indistinguishable from the ordinary Tories, except that they are more reactionary, and who would not exist for a moment in Parliament except by our permission? I gather that the excessive attention paid to them was not Ramsay's doing, but S.B's, who is apt to make a fetish of magnanimity. But my real objection is to their second-rate ability. If the National Government means anything, it should be a pooling of the best talents. Scotland is going to be a very difficult post in the near future, and Godfrey Collins, the Scottish Secretary, is simply preposterous. Then I do not think that John Gilmour is in the least the man for the Home Secretaryship. He is very honest, but very slow, and for a Home Secretary you want above all things a man with a quick mind, and preferably a lawyer. The one really good appointment is Walter Elliot to Agriculture. Hore-Belisha as Financial Secretary to the Treasury seems to have aroused great indignation in my party. He has got a kind of minor Jewish cleverness, but it does not go very deep and he is not liked.
But all this is a minor matter compared to the appalling international situation. It would be hard to exaggerate the blundes Simon has made. He combines all the demerits of every predecessor and none of their merits. If all stories be true, his tactlessness is beyond relief. My American friends distrust him deeply, and our relations with America are the most vital issue
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today. I had a long talk with Arthur Salter last night, and though I do not think his sense of perspec tive is always, good, his knowledge is immense, and he is desperately gloomy.
Well, we must make the best of it. Everything hangs upon the World Economic Conference. The trouble is that our experts, both official and unofficial, are so much better than our statesmen. Ministers are far too narrow a conduit pipe for the real intelligence and knowledge that we can mobilise here.
Much love. from John Buchan
