Dear Sir, Further to our letter of December 19, we have now had an opportunity of reviewing our files relating to the activities of the Imperial Economic Committee and the Imperial Shipping Committee.

The Imperial Shipping Committee, first appointed in June 1920, made a considerable number of investigations at the request of the Canadian Government or of the Canadian representative on the Committee. The principal items of Canadian interest dealt with by the Committee were Canadian marine insurance rates, Rates of freight on Canadian flour, Certain aspects of the Canadian cattle trade, Rates of freight on Canadian apples to the U.K., Questions relating to the shipment of grain through the Canadian ports of Halifax and Saint John, Hudson's Bay marine insurance rates. The results of investigations of Canadian problems by the Committee have been helpful. In the case of Hudson's Bay marine insurance rates, these were reduced and, as I recall, the extra insurance rates on hulls of vessels trading to Saint John were eliminated, i.e., Halifax and Saint John were put on a par with U.S. Atlantic ports in the matter of hull insurance rates.

It is our view that the Imperial Shipping Committee has rendered good ser-vice to the Commonwealth, and we would be in favour of its continuation, as it has accumulated much data and experience in shipping problems affecting the Commonwealth. Apart from the investigations which it made on Canada's specific initiative, it covered a wide field of other studies, many of which were of general interest to Canada.

With regard to the Imperial Economic Committee, it is difficult at the moment to judge to what extent there will be a renewed need for the services that this Committee is capable of providing, and whether such services, if continued, are likely to be of specific and substantial benefit to Canada. The changed conditions of world trade will make it necessary to consider carefully the duties that any reconstructed Imperial Economic Committee might best undertake. A good deal will depend upon the manner in which the functions of the F.A.O. are developed, as well as the functions of other international trade organizations, which are, or shortly will be, in process of being set up.

Our immediate view is that it would certainly be wise to refrain from scrap-ping the machinery provided by the Imperial Economic Committee until it is clear that there will be no real need for retaining it. We would accordingly recommend that the continuation of the Committee be sympathetically considered, if such is the desire of the other Empire countries, but that its operations should be kept at a minimum for a year or two until we are in a better position to judge whether, by reason of the scope and character of the United Nations organizations, there would be any explicit advantage in carrying on the Imperial Economic Committee.

Yours faithfully,
OLIVER MASTER