BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 51, 1 March 1921, Page 8

BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION

TO BE HELD IN 1923.

(FROM ODB OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 7th January. An executive committee and a general mstnagor have been appointed for the British Empire Exhibition, arid the question of a site in London is now under discussion. It will bo remembered that Parliament recently passed a Bill enabling the Board of Trade to guarantee an amount not exceeding £100,000 towards any loss which may result from holding scribe a similar guarantee. Already proscribe a similar guarantee. Alreay promises amounting to £250,000 have been received, but no special appeal will be made to/the public until the site has been cbjsen, which should be in the course of fcho next week or two.

This will be the first occasion on which th« Imperial Government and the Dominions have co-operated in an enterprise of this kind, and owing to the magnitude of the undertaking it is not .anticipated that the Exhibition will commence before

Mr. W. -F. Wintour, C.8., C.M.G.. who hau been Director of the Exhibition Branch of the Board of Trade, has been appointed general manager, and ho will have as his assistant manager Major E. ■A, • Belchor. formerly headmaster of Christ's Cqllego, Christohurch. Major Belcher was serving with..the Ministry of Food during the last year of the war, and since then he has acted as Director of Propaganda for the Agricultural Organisation Society, and for the last twelve months hau been connected with the Agricultural Co-operative movement.

It was not intended, Major Belcher informed mo yesterday, that the Exhibition should be like. all othora of its kind—a. mcire conglomeration of. exhibits. Tho idea was to take stook of the Empire's supplies, and show what could be done to turn our undeveloped resources into wealth, and so help to mako up for tho ravages of war. Incidentally, tho knowledge so gained would place us in a position of much greater independence Bhould any international crisis arise in the future, though there was no intention of curtailing; foreign development for the benefit of Imperial trade. "Wo are going to m»ko a great , feature of the development of scientific research," Baid Major Bolchor, "a.'i well as si\ch matters as social welfare, hygiene, sanitation, and the study of tropical and cub-tropical diseases in people, aniimals, and plants, for the question of research is of extraordinary importance in the development of Imperial resources."

Although each Dominion will have its own pavilion where it may do as it pleases, it is expected that in the case of i cor tain commodities, euoh as timber, a; system of pooling will bo adopted, so that ou<> may see the whole of the Imperial resources of that particular commodity gathered under one roof. Another feature of the exhibition which should create great interest will be the display of live stock from overseas, and it is anticipated tha.t the people here will get some surprises when they see the development in the stook which originated from Great Britain in years gone by. ,;