IMPERIAL INSTITUTE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18722, 19 June 1926, Page 16

IMPERIAL INSTITUTE.

I LECTURE BY NEW DIRECTOR. REARRANGED GALLERIES. {TROiL Ol T K OWN CORRESPOKDEKT.) LONDON, April 21. Lieut.-Gen. Sir William Furse, the new Director of the Imperial Institute, in a lecture before the lloyal Society of Arts, explained the present organisation of the Institute and gave > some indication of his hopes for the ( future. \ -'-'lt Li .the policy of the Institute," lie said,, "to avoid all overlapping of functions' with other existing bodies and to work in harmony witn tlieni. : Where an organisation ex-ists, such, for instance, as the Experimental Stations ot the Board of Agriculture, to give an example, wo realise the benefit to the Institute which results : from keeping in.close touch therewith. Enquiries are received at the Institute from time to tiino as to the coin position and value of soils, manure, cattle foods, and as to crops, in regard to the investigation ot' which and the problems connected" therewith "tho Kotliani- ; stead Experimental Station can be of the greatest service to the Institute. And so" in regard to many other products, whether mineral or plant or animal products, we solicit the assistance of existing agencies where such are available. In this way arrangements are now being made for linking up tho Trade Commissioner service of the Department of Overseas Trade more closely with the work of the Institute than has been the case in the past." Exhibition Galleries. As to the future, Sir William sail! it was hoped to reopen the Exhibition Galleries free to the public by the Whitsuntide holiday, and he had every reason to think that the new method of arranging tho exhibits would be more attractive and interesting than heretofore. ' "In the past," he said,'"there has been a vast .number of show-cases •with rows and rows of glass bottles, each containing what appears to the layman's eyes exactly the same product, be it seed or cotton or oil, and other cases filled with different kinds •of wool or libra which all appear very much alike. Now. the ordinary visitor ,is apt to pass these by with a hurnec glance, hoping •to come upon sometiling- more entertaining. The expert who really wants -to- examine the dif- | ferences between these products, which | are to him find his needs all-important, cannot reach- his goal- through l two layers of glass—the glass of the case and tho glass of the bottle inside—and merely through his fcyes. Oth£r senses, smell, touch, may be essential. Accordingly, ■we propose to relegate 1 a great nrnny of these samples to a sample room in close proximity to our scientific staft and their laboratories, and: the expert visitor to our galleries will'be taken, there and given every practical, assistance, in ,his investigations. • "This does not. mean that the public galleries will not exhibit these products. They will—but'-in a-rtwrd attractive -way. We believe you must first'- arrest the feet "and" the mind of the-visitor-before you caw hop© to in- ; struct him.' The best'modern mean's of doing so i& the diorama 6!r-model. Young or old,, wo are drawn to these willingly. Round -these , dioramas, wo shall arrange the exhibits -to which, they refer and through artistic arrangement • and with- the aid of -maps, charts,, photographs, and Clearly printed notes, ■Ws ;■ shall give '-thfe- visitor, in ,iiri - inter- *. .©siing. forfri. considerable instruction; . in.* the value; • past; 'present' • and future, to-the-Empire of- tnis or-that commodity from this or that. Dominion or. Colony." < - Imperial Interests. After enumerating all' the activities of. the Institute Sir William went, on to say: "I cannot help thinking that in tho •Imperial Institute we have what should he a centre for many?' cither Imperial • interests. For some it is already, used. For instance! 'courses-6f lecture's arranged by the Colonial Office are frequently given to young gentlemen about to join the Colonial Administrative services in various parts of the Empire. The Empire' Nursing Association have their -headquarters with us. Their- beneficent and most valuable work, which sprang from the prac-, tieal enthusiasm, a generation ago, of a lady who, from personal experience, ; knew the crying need for trained nurses : in at least one of our distant tropical islands, has now grown into a wide- ■ spread organisation.

Dominion Artists; ; ■ "Our Board of tjoyenors; last month,' acceded to a request from the Commissioners Of the Exhibition of 1861, 1 ; and have placed at their disposal a sniali gallery in "ivhieh will bo exhibited annually the .'work of their School ■ of Rome Art Scholars,' as . well' as—' from time to tiitie-r-tbe work of young, artists from ail part's of the Empire, many of whom are at ..present entirely unknown outside their.. own. Dominion or. Colony", principally .through the difficulty, pecuniary. and_ otherwise, of : bringing their work - to the notice of art patrons in the Hoiae Country. "The furtherance! of the culture of. .the British Empire as a whole may: in this and" other directions be nur- : . tured ,by the Imperial Institute without in any way detracting from its primary value as a scientific link between the raw products to be found all : over the Empire; and the industrialists in England, and in- great industrial cities in some of the Dominions.

"In any case, I would ask you to realise that my staff at- the Imperial Institute are only too anxious to give all the assistance they possibly can to the fullest development of. the great resources of this Empire of ours, and I would suggest that, however greatly any single Dominion may accelerate the pace of her own self-development as a Nation, the Imperial aspect of that development is enormously important, both to herself and to the. Mother Country and to • each and: every other constituent part of the Empire. -Each part can be and should be chiefly, if not wholly, dependent on the others. In tliat way, and that way only, can we in this generation take our share in the consolidation of the marvellous heritage entrusted to us by the enterprise and self-sacrifice of our forebears." Co-operation in Eesearch. Sir James Allen, in the discussion that followed the lecture, said that the Institute was not an Institute of Great Britain. It belonged to the Empire, and every Dominion and Colony ought to be concerned with it, They had not the' co-operation of some j of the Dominions in. the past, but he hoped that in the re-organisation every Dominion and Colony would do its fair share. He thought that as a clearing liouse of information the Institute should be. developed more and more, so that whenever any difficult problem concerning raw material cropped up a Dominion could apply to the Institute for a solution. If the staff could not solve it they would know where to go for the information. He hoped that as an educational, organisation it would be still further developed, noE only for school children, but. for the older people who came xo learn what we had in,the .Empire. We did not really know whafc we had in the Empire, how great we're our resources, and how to use them. It would be recognised, he felt sure, that Great Britain was not .the only yari) f>£ iho

world which was carrying on research: investigation. It would be the business of the Institute to link up the research organisations throughout all parts of the Empire.