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2.

adroit party manager and a skilful diplomatist, but he has now
acquired a real audacity. He has got together a remarkable
Cabinet, compounded of youth and experience. He has already cut
down its numbers, introduced the English system of undersecretaries,
and abolished that old home of graft, the Harbour
Commissioners. Then he dashed down to Washington, caught the
President in an emotional mood before the Armistice, and pushed
through the Reciprocity Treaty, which Mr. Bennett had almost completed.
So far as I can judge I think the agreement a good one,
and it in no way compromises British interests. The P.M. will
have to face a certain amount of kick from Canadian industrialists
but the President has taken real risks for there will be the
deuce of a row with his farmers. We expect to have an official
visit from that great man early in the New Year. Meantime the
Prime Minister is basking in the sun on an island off the
Georgia coast, and Mr. Bennett left Calgary yesterday for a month,
leaving no address. I hope you and your colleagues will try to
follow that good example.

We are having a peaceful time just now , for Parliament
won't meet until after the New Year, and I am occupied in getting
to know the chief people. I go to Montreal and Toronto next
Saturday for a week, where I have to make many speeches. About
speaking Canada has now bowels of compassion. One has several
speeches a day, which are fully reported and broadcast, as the
the Governor-General is always walking on thin ice, and has a
very limited range of subjects, it is not altogether an easy