WHO IS LIABLE?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 18 August 1910, Page 5

WHO IS LIABLE?

THE BRUSSELS BLAZE. LACK OF FIRE FIGHTING ORGANISATION. RESCUERS REGARDED AS ROBBERS. [Press Association—Copyright.] (Rec. August 18, 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, Wednesday. Britain has suggested to Belgium that a joint board of experts be formed to apportion tho responsibility in connection with the Brussels Exhibition lire, it possible. The Belgian Government will be liable for the amounts not recoverable under the insurance. "The Times'" estimates the total loss at £2.000,000. The "Journal de Brussells" justifies the complaints of correspondents that tho firemen were unable to find hydrants, and that the hoses were too short. While the fire was spreading the firemen squabbled over the leadership. Another great fault was following instead of isolating the fire. Other statements are to the effect that the British hose was taken out directly tho Belgian section was threatened, but the pressure was about equal to that of a toy squirt. Five attendants, finding it impossible to stay tho fire, attempted to save the art exhibits, furniture, and tapestry, but excited soldiery and police rushed in with fixed bayonets, and forced them to leave the building. The safe containing the Do Beers diamonds has been recovered.

" LIGHTING HIS PIPE." THE CAUSE OF THE FIRE. - (Received Aug. 18, 9.40 a.m.) LONDON, Wednesday. "The Times" asserts that a watchman has admitted that he caused the fire at the Brussels Exhibition, by lighting his P'peTHE BRITISH EXHIBITS.

The British section at the Brussels Exhibition contained what was probably the finest, most representative and best arranged display ot British manufactures ever seen at a foreign exhibition. This was the firsl occasion on. which the recently formed Exhibitions Department of the Board of Trade exercised its functions, and the result is declared by all the. papers to have been very satisfactory. The Department saw that manufacturers exhibited, took charge of the exhibits, and arranged their places in the section, and all Uie exhibitors had to do was to unpack their goods and set them out.

A FINE DISPLAY. The special correspondent of the ■'Daily Telegraph," in the course of two very laudatory articles, says: —"Everybody, it seems, is talking about the British section. Wo seem to have taken most of the folks over hero by surprise, because we have at last begun to do these things as they ought to bo done." "I have had the advantage of walking round the British pavilion under the guidance of Mr Wintour, our Commis-sioner-General on the spot. and from what he has told mo and has shown n:e it is ouite clear that at Brussels we shall give to the outside world a better notion of our capacity as a manufacturing nation than we have ever done in the past. Never before, for example, shall we have given to other countries so complete or so convincing an indication of our artistic skill in the fashioning of furniture. Not only have we some cf our very foremost firms giving individual displays of their own resources in furnishing interiors in various styles, but we have got together a collection of valuable old furniture which. preeminently illustrates the soundness upon which" our reputation rests, and the like of which, it is said, has never yet been 6een outside our own shores.''

BRADFORD GOODS. Of the /exhibit of Bradford goods the correspondent says:— "All the main processes of manufacture are shown by means of tableaux. In the first we see a riock of sheep browsing in a Yorkshire chile: in the second we witness the ■ooeration of wool-sorting ; in the third tiw process of combing and carding ; ind in the fourth and fifth we see the means by which the wool is dyed and woven. "The scenes Shave all been taken front actual factories, many of the aspires are portraits, and in every case real machines and dummy workmen fill in the foreground of the picture to ifive reality to the picture. The illustration does not end here, because there are two still more imposing tableaux, showijiy; the finished goods in actual wear by'lay figures. There is a scene in Hvde Park, peopled by some twenty or twenty-five figures in afternoon costume," and more realistic stil, perhaps. we can ntite the same materials fashioned into garments for evening wear. This last scene bas been very cleverly treated. V-'e see the guests approaching by a o-rand staircase: wo note the liveried servant announcing them as they reach the landing, and. finally, we observe the hostess welcoming them at the entrance to the reception room. So far as one can learn, wo have never done anything on quite so complete a scale at any previous exhibition abroad." POTTERY.

An immea.se amount of extremely valuablo pottery and porcelain must have bee-i destroyed in the fire, as well a* thousands of pounds worth of beautiful tapestries and furniture. "Near to the Clinton showcases are several containing what "is probablv the very finest coltcct,;oll of the distinctive Bernard -Moore ware that has ever been shown, out of Fnolaud. Exceedingly beautiful and artistic it is to the eye. and it is scarcely a surprise- to you to ho informed that a or so oi choicest pieces which you nri"ht easily sweep into a small handbag represent „* valueof between £2OOO and £3OOO Within a. few yards oi these Bernard Moore cases are others c-.n----tainin-r some of the finest specimens thai the DoTihon factories have ever produced. And w'li-at Nto be said c.f ;tlio gnus oi ornamental and 'sculptured, with which this department, ot the section 'ls farther c-nnched .' l'-ve u to tile uninitiated they appeal a* things ot rare artistic loveliness."