§ 44. Mr. Goodhartasked the President of the Board of Trade what support he will give to the proposal for establishing an industrial exhibition centre on the Crystal Palace site.
§ Mr. JayThis proposal is being carefully considered, but it is an expensive one and cannot be settled without regard to the many other desirable proposals which make demands upon our limited national resources.
§ Mr. GoodhartWill the right hon. Gentleman say whether anything, apart from arguments about the size of the Government's financial support for this project, is holding up its implementation?
§ Mr. JayYes. The other trouble is the financial support which is coming from other quarters. This has so far delayed the introduction of the scheme, but I very much hope that we shall be able to reach agreement.
§ Mr. LubbockIs the President of the Board of Trade aware that, although it is a very good idea to have such a national exhibition and conference centre, other alternative sites have been proposed for it for which the communications are much more adequate than Crystal Palace?
§ Mr. JayThere has been a great deal of discussion about this, but the general view of representative industrial organisations and experts on exhibitions is that this is the best site we have available.
§ Mr. GoodhartIs the President of the Board of Trade aware that communications with the Crystal Palace site are excellent?
§ Mr. Lipton>Would my right hon. Friend bear in mind that it is desirable from many points of view, including traffic problems, not to attract so many of these exhibitions to London but to have many more of them in the provinces in places easier of access?
§ Mr. JayI agree that that is desirable in itself, but we also have to consider the convenience of overseas visitors to these exhibitions.