55. Lieut. - Colonel Sir ARNOLD WILSONasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has considered the request from the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 that they may be released from their undertaking to contribute to the cost of the new science museum; and what action he proposes to take in the matter?
Mr. CHAMBERLAINThe Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, being empowered under their Supplemental Charter to utilise the surplus funds arising from the Exhibition to promote the knowledge of science and art and their application in productive industry, offered in 1876 to contribute towards the cost of building a science museum on the Commissioners' estate in South Kensington. This offer was not accepted by the Government until 1910, and, owing to the intervention of the War period, the first section of the museum, to the cost of which the Commissioners have duly contributed their share, has only just been completed. During the interval the Commissioners began to use their income for the provision of scholarships and bursaries which extended to the Dominions as well as to this country, 980 and the development of their schemes in this connection has proved to be of quite exceptional importance and value. They have now represented to His Majesty's Government that any curtailment of this educational programme would be extremely unfortunate, and that, indeed, its further extension to the limit of their existing resources would be fully justified. In this view I concur, and I have, therefore, decided that it would be in the public interest that the Commissioners should be relieved of their liability to contribute further to the cost of the museum.