§ 30. Mr. MABANEasked the Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department if he can give a report on the exhibition held in London under the auspices of his Department on 19th-23rd October of articles of foreign manufacture from the stocks of retail distributors in this country, with the object of enabling British manufacturers to supply equivalent articles; and from whom the initiative for the exhibition came?
§ Major COLVILLEThe exhibition, which was organised by the Incorporated Association of Retail Distributors with the assistance of the Department of Overseas Trade from the 19th to 23rd October, was highly successful. Representatives of some 5,000 United Kingdom manufacturers inspected samples of many classes of foreign merchandise purchasable from United Kingdom retail stores. I am informed that a number of orders have already been placed in this country for articles formerly purchased abroad as a direct result of the exhibition. Similar successful exhibitions held in Manchester and Glasgow in 1930 and in the early part of this year, under the auspices of a United Kingdom retail store, led to the suggestion by the Incorporated Association of Retail Distributors that a similar exhibition on a wider scale should be held in London.