FUTURE OF WEMBLEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1925, Page 12

FUTURE OF WEMBLEY.

PROBLEMS TO RE FACED. WHAT THE DOMINIONS WILL DO. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 9, Now that we are getting within hail of October, and the end of the Exhibition, the question is being asked, what next? Mr. J. H. Thomas, Colonial Secretar> in the late Labour Government, who has all along been a hearty supporter of Wembley, and is still, in the absence of the Duke of Devonshire, acting chairman of the executive, says the question bristles with difficulties. "There are, - ' he said, "two conflicting points of view to be considered; they are represented by those, who, recognising the enormous value which Wembley has been to the Empire, desire to see the grounds and buildings, those of them which are permanent at least, formed into some sort of memorial to the Empire. On the other hand, there are those who, looking at the • matter from a purely commercial point of view, hold that all the assets which will remain after the exhibition closes shall be sold off forthwith to the highest bidder. '•Between these two views the Realisation Committee will have to steer a very careful course. These are the questions with which I am faced at the moment: "First: Are those public-spirited people who came forwards in the early days to undertake the organisation of a great Imperial Exhibition, to see the work they did then and have continued since then, count for nothing? Will they not shudder at the very thought of handing the wonderful permanent buildings and grounds of Wembley to the highest bidder, who, it may be, will have no appreciation of their Imperial value? "Secondly: How are we to meet the very natural demand that all the assets be realised if it comes from the private guarantors, who, when a proposal to hold an exhibition representative of the British Empire was first mooted, undertook to guarantee it against loss? Can we do it only by selling up Wembley, lock, stock, and barrej, either as a single job lot, or as a collection of 'bits and scraps,' in the words of Edmund Burke, without regard to their relations or dependencies? These are questions for the future to decide. "Of course, every day brings its crop of rumours regarding the future of Wembley. I read one day, that before very long the site of the British Empire Exhibition will be converted-into a film city, that it will be converted into a garden suburb, that factories will spring up where the pavilions of the Dominions and Colonies now stand. These stories I recommend the public to discount until the committee which has just been set up to go into the whole question, has an opportunity of examining the various . .proposals that . have been made from time to time. ,.