A GREAT EXHIBITION

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 3, 4 July 1922, Page 4

A GREAT EXHIBITION

BRITISH MISSION ARRIVES

MAJOR BELCHER INTERVIEWED.

When the British Empire Exhibition Mission arrived yesterday by theManukafrom Sydney it was officially met in the steamer. Major E. A. Belcher, its head, was welcomed by Mr. R. W. Dalton, H.M. Trade Commissioner in New Zealand j Mr. J. (W. Collins, secretary to the Department of Commerce and Industries; Mr. E. S. Pope, secretary to the Department of Agriculture; and Mr. H. B. T. Drew, Director of Publicity. Major Belcher, seen by The Post, said he was glad to be back in New Zealand, for ho had been here before. He hoped to see jit from eqd to end during this visit, when the mission hoped to meet all business men to discuss with them the best means of utilising the great British Empire Exhibition in the development of the resources of the Empire. He said the mission had been most! successful in Australia, travelling nearly 10,000 miles there, and visiting every State. "We want to stress," he. said, " the business side of the Exhibition and the practical results that it, may accomplish in the development of European markets for all British Dominions' products, and to show where there can be 100 per cent, of preference obtained. Australia readily saw the possibilities, and is to have a pavilion with 150,000 square feet of space, and will spend £250,000 upon it. Besides that, th© general interest in Australia in the project was exceptionally keen. Our visit in the Commonwealth, then, was exceedingly successful. .The chambers of commerce and similar bodies of business men there took a deep and practical interest in the Exhibition, and wo feel assured the interest taken in New Zealand will be no less keen.

"The Exhibition is expected to be visited by 10,000,000 people, at the rate of 60,000 a day, and in all the restaurants and eating-houses there will be nothing consumed that does not originate in the British Empire—meats, tea, coffee, cocoa, butter, wines, cheese, fruits, preserves, flour, and so on. This feature will bring all Dominion food products prominently before millions of people. But foodstuffs will not, of course, b© all the exhibits that will represent tlie Dominions—far from it. 'We. have seen how wide is the range of manufactures in Australia, and they will be widely represented, no doubt. \ We know that New Zealand is -.famous for! its woollen goods. The Exhibition N will be ft wonderful display to the world at large of the boundless resources and their infinite variety, of Great. Britain1 and Britain beyond tho Seas." Asked as to the ,'site, Major Belcher said it had been most happily chosen. It was at Wembley Park, in the midst of beautiful English, rural seen cry, and yet only ten minutes by train from the centre of London. Access would be cheap and easy; but the great Imperial Exhibition of 1924 had something deeper in meaning than a display, of British products. It would be expressive of the unity and industry of tho .British people as a whole, and an impressive display of what they are doing in the arts of peace, of their enterprise arid far-flung activities from Newfoundland to the Falklands, from Hongkong to Johannesburg. The great self-governing Dominions, by their special representation and the multiplicity of their production in the form of raw materials or finished goods, as the case may be, will appear, in the true perspective of their importance, especially to Continental visitors who may need enlightenment on the subject.