§ 25. Mr. FORRESTasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department the main outlines of the Convention recently signed in Paris to limit international exhibitions?
§ Mr. HACKINGThe Convention limits the frequency of long period international exhibitions of a comprehensive character which are officially recognised by the government of the country in which they are held and in which other governments are invited to participate. The Convention provides that in cases where the participating governments are required to erect national pavilions, such exhibitions shall be separated by an interval of at least six years and shall not be held more often than once in 15 years in any one country. Shorter intervals are permitted in the case of exhibitions at which foreign governments are not required to erect national pavilions, and the limitations are still less severe in the case of special exhibitions confined to one branch of industry.
The Convention regulates the internal organisation of international exhibitions, and provides for the establishment of an international bureau on whose council all the signatory countries will be represented, and whose functions it will be to see that the Convention is duly carried out and to study exhibition questions generally.
Exhibitions lasting less than three weeks, fine art exhibitions, exhibitions organised by one country in another country as well as purely British Empire exhibitions are specifically excluded from the scope of the Convention.
The only exhibitions affected are those in which foreign governments are invited through the diplomatic channel to participate by the government of the organising country.
The Convention will enter into force when it has been ratified by seven governments.
The text of the Convention will be published at an early date.