2110-8-6-7

27th May, 1937.

The Rt Honble W.L. Mackenzie King, M.P., at the Ritz Hotel Piccadilly London, S.W.

I am following with the deepest interest the discussions of the Imperial Conference, so far as the reports permit. I am glad you are resisting any suggestions for a centralised Imperial machinery. In the present conditon of affairs it would only do harm. And I am very glad that you are pressing the need of a trade treaty with the U.S.A. That seems to me the most important problem before the Empire at the moment. I expect the chief difficulty will be with Britain herself in conneciton with her new agricultural policy; but if we can achieve some kind of arrangment it will be a very long step forward towards the peace of the world.

May I tell you how excellent I thought your speeches? Your Canadian Club speech could not have been bettered. In everything I have read of yours you seem to have struck exactly the right note. That looks as if you are really in good form and good health. The reports I get of you from other people suggest that you are really well and enjoying yourself. I hear you got a great reception in the Coronation procession. I hope you will bring off a trip to the Highlands with Ian Mackenzie.

There is not much news from this side. I left Ottawa at

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the beginning of last week, and visited Galt, Guelph and Brantford and all that beautiful countryside. We had a very interesting time and I am more convinced than ever that that part of western Ontario is the most wholesome economical unit in Canada. Then we went in state to the Toronto races - happily in fine weather. The Torontonians are a hospitable lot, but the grandees have the curious air of undeveloped schoolboys - much more so, I think, than the similar class in Montreal!

We had a wonderful weekend, in beautiful, in the Thousand Isles. What a place! Gananoque is a delightful little town; the most unspoilt place, I think, of its kind that I have seen in Canada. Then I went to Montreal to pen the Belgian Exhibition, and arrived here the day before yesterday. Quebec always gives me the feel of the West Highlands. The smells in the air are quite different from Ottawa. I was pretty seedy here last year, and it is very pleasant to be living in the Citadel and feel well again.

Last night the Quebec Government entertained us at an official dinner, and I met most of the Ministers. I had a long talk with Duplessis. He is a most curious character, with the strong spice of the bandit in him, and with something of Mitchell Hepburn too. I am a little nervous about an alliance between these two eminent men. He is a man of many dislikes, and has little good to say about anybody, but in his diatribes there is always an odd twinkle. Among British statesmen his chief admiration seems to have been for Lord Balfour, but he has a considerable respect for Baldwin. He is contemptuous of French Nationalism, but I think he is the kind of man who is always on the look-out for something to

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give him a party advantage. I do not feel that he will be very difficult to handle in a Constitutional Conference, for there is no fanaticism about him.

I have had long talks with Norman Rogers and Euler. The latter is very tired and badly wants a holiday. Dandurand is on the top of his form. I have had many long letters from England lately, including one from Ramsay Macdonald, which was a kind of swan song to his political life. I wonder very much how your negotiations with Baldwin about a visit here have been getting on?

I go to the Maritimes on Monday-week. Meantime I am trying to see as many French-Canadians as possible. I want to find out what importance is to be attached to the curious undercurrent of crude Fascism which seems to be at present running through Quebec.

We all send our love.

Yours ever,