HC Deb 14 April 1930 vol 237 cc2621-2
35. Sir N. GRATTAN-DOYLE

asked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department what are the duties of the Bureau for Limitation of International Exhibitions; what is its composition; where is it situated; and what proportion of the total cost is represented by the contribution of £500 contained in the Civil Estimates for the current year?

Mr. GILLETT

The functions of the International Exhibitions Bureau will be to see that the provisions of the Convention relating to International Exhibitions, signed at Paris in November, 1928, are duly carried out. The Bureau will not be set up until after the Convention itself comes into force, which it will not do until it has been ratified by at least seven of the signatory countries. (Hitherto only one country has formally ratified the Convention.) The Bureau will be controlled by an administrative council composed of members appointed by the contracting countries who ratify the Convention. The seat of the Bureau is, by the terms of the Convention, to be fixed at the first meeting of the administrative council, which is to be convened at Paris by the French Government in the year following the coming into force of the Convention. The budget of the Bureau has been provisionally fixed at £4,000 sterling.

Sir N. GRATTAN-DOYLE

In view of the hon. Member's reply, may I ask what useful purpose is being served by the continuance of this bureau?

Mr. GILLETT

One of the principal advantages is to try and secure, if it is possible, that there shall not be so many of these exhibitions.

Sir N. GRATTAN-DOYLE

Does the hon. Member think that it is worth the money we are paying for it?

Mr. GILLETT

We are not paying the whole of this £4,000.