[Stamped in purple ink: 'ATTORNEY GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT, INVESTIGATION BRANCH'.]

[Letterhead in blue ink, first line unreadable due to damaged page. Second line reads 'COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA.']

2^nd March 1921

The Director.

Investigation Branch.

Attorney General’s Department.

MELBOURNE.

[Handwritten annotation in margin:] Communist File

[Underlined heading:] Captain and Mrs Hugo THROSSEL.

In reply to your W.209 of the 22^nd ultimo, I have to state that Captain Hugo THROSSEL, V.C. and Mrs K. S. THROSSEL, nee PRITCHARD, concerning whom I reported to you in my 19/1/113 of the 24^th November 1919, are residents of Greenmount, situated in the hills surrounding Perth.

Captain THROSSEL is a member of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Board under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act, and has been representing the soldiers for two years. He possesses property in and about Northam and is a member of a well-known West Australian family. His father, the late George Throssel, was at one time Minister for Lands in this State and was also the Premier.

THROSSEL is not regarded as a strong minded individual and he is thought to be influenced by his wife, who as achieved fame as an Australian Novelist. Mrs THROSSEL holds advanced views on Socialism, and gave a lecture on the subject in Perth in November 1919.

Captain and Mrs THROSSEL are residing in a beautiful home in the hills and both of them are regarded as visionaries, the humourists having it "that they sit on the lawns in the early morn and write blood and thunder".

I have met THROSSEL and it is my intention to “draw him out” on the subject of Communism, and, if successful, I shall report same.

A medical authority informed a friend of mine that he would not be surprised if THROSSEL went "off his head" at any time, so it is evidently his wife who must be regarded as the more dangerous.

[Handwritten signature:] R H Weddell

[Stamped in margin in purple ink:] 10 MAR 1921

[Illegible handwritten annotation] 11/3/21