§ 33. Mr. Henry Clarkasked the Minister of Public Buildings and Works what plans his Department has made to preserve the buildings of the British Embassy in Copenhagen; and what is the cost of the work entailed.
§ Mr. MellishThe cost of rehabilitating the present residence and bringing it up to date would be of the order of £160,000. I propose, therefore, to sell this property 20 and build a new residence on a recently acquired site.
§ Mr. ClarkWould not the right hon. Gentleman agree that selling the present embassy, which is beautiful and has a unique position, and replacing it with a suburban building which will stand a fifty-fifty chance of being pretty ugly thanks to modern architects, is very false economy indeed, particularly when one realises the real purpose of an embassy in a country such as Denmark?
§ Mr. MellishThe Defence and Overseas Affairs Sub-Committee of the Estimates Committee has already declared that, in its opinion, the Copenhagen residence is too large for present-day needs and is difficult and expensive to maintain. I have just given the figure of £160,000. All the expert advice is that we should sell it and buy a new property and build an embassy which will be a credit to Britain—and I believe that there are good architects available to do that.