Dear Mike [Pearson]:

I have just come back from a rather disturbing luncheon, at which I was a guest with the High Commissioners for Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. My invitation had come through Jordan, the New Zealand High Commissioner, and I am still a little vague as to who our hosts were or in what capacity they were acting. The man in the chair was a Mr. T.B. Scotcher, who I think may be a big produce dealer here. The man sitting next to me was the head of the soft drink industry in this country and principal proprietor of Schweppes. But the moving spirit of the group was George Gibson, who is a member of the National Executive of the T.U.C., Labour nominee on the Court of the Bank of England, and Churchill's principal Labour colleague on the United Europe Committee. The others who brought the company up to twelve or thirteen were never identified.

Gibson, who was the real spokesman for the group, began and ended with quotations from James Elroy Flecker, and in between he outlined his ideas about launching a great new Empire movement, to begin with a big Empire Dinner set for October 15th, at which Churchill had promised to speak (if he were in England) and at which Gibson was confident Attlee would agree to be the principal speaker. They had in mind something of the old Empire Marketing Board symbol of the "King's Christmas Pudding", starting with South African grapefruit and ending with Jamaica cigars. (Canadian staples fit more easily into a breakfast than a banquet menu, and weren't much talked about by my fellow gourmets.)

The background of this effort was a feeling that this country's economic and financial position was likely to be a good deal tougher this winter than it is now, with loans running out and exports falling far short of meeting the deficiency. The occasion would require a demonstration of Empire solidarity, proof to' the world that if necessary our countries could carry on alone in the postwar period the way they had in 1940-41, etc., etc. They were all decent, disinterested people, full of the friendliest feelings towards all the other countries of the Commonwealth, overflowing with gratitude and appreciation for the aid they had received — and totally unaware of the real bases on which it had been given. I was defeated and discouraged by the whole performance, because I didn't know where to begin to put the record straight. I thought, however, I had better add a dash of Canadian cold water to the Australian wine and South African brandy, and did say that I personally had serious misgivings about the wisdom and timeliness of the whole project. I thought a useful job could be done in reminding United Kingdom consumers of the efforts which our bacon producers, butter producers, etc., had made during the war years to meet this country's essential needs; that they had foregone other and more profitable markets in an effort to keep the essential supply lines working; and that they were entitled to areal measure of consumer preference in the postwar years when supplies were ample and competition again prevailed. I thought it would be a great mistake to mix up these sensible, if low level, considerations with the suggestion that the Commonwealth could he in any sense considered as an economic bloc with pretensions to self-sufficiency. I didn't think this made sense in economic, financial or political terms, nor was it a realistic approach for any of the Commonwealth Governments to encourage. In the present climate of opinion, a gesture such as they had in mind was quite likely to complicate the multilateral trade programme in which we still had hopes and which would quite possibly be reaching a critical stage next autumn. In furthering that programme it was in our interest to stress all the community of interest with the Americans that we could find, rather than emphasize the issues that divided them from us, etc., etc.

After this homily I left, feeling like a.leper, probably having done irreparable damage to Commonwealth relations. I have been thinking about writing for my recall for some months now. This may be as good an occasion for action as anything.

Yours,
N.A. ROBERTSON