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Conference (heads of delegations) 10 am today. We shone there, obviously we were the only people who understood position. I got going and felt quite confident.

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MacDonald and Thomas were badly briefed so that the discussion wandered into byways with myself and Patrick McGilligan acting as technical advisers to the whole lot. Fortunately it gave me a sense of confidence I have never had before - though I haven't read a document. Yesterday's¹ was rather pitiful. I didn't listen to the speeches much, they were just general opening statements and I was writing the obituary references to the dead men since 26 to include in Tody's² speech.³ The world slump has them all in a bad way. Each wonders if the others can do anything for them - conscious of a press doped public outside who expect what is obviously impossible. Our speech sounded like the expression of sympathy from a rich man to a poor man.

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