"DOMINION HOUSE."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1767, 4 June 1913, Page 5

"DOMINION HOUSE."

EARL GREY'S SCHEME. PERMANENT EMPIRE TRADE EXHIBITION.

London, April 24. '. Tho establishment of onu great Home for all tho self-governing Dominions in tho capital city of tho Empire—a centre for all their activities in this country—tliat is the noblo aim which Earl Gn-y, the former Governor-General of Canada, has set himself out to accomplish. It was announced a little while ago that Earl Grey had secured from the London County Council an option for thjee years, terminable at the end of the first tivelvo months, on t]he central portion of the Aldwych island site in the Strand. The area lis is interested in covers over 120,000 square feet; for the option that has been granted him he pays .£3OOO a year; and the County Council have agreed, if lie finds himself in a position to exercise his option, to lease him the site for 91) years at i£50,000 a year. _ _ Lord Grey is a man of vision, enthusiasm, and practicality. Wat ho proposes and has taken off hia coat to bring about is the erection on the Aldwych site of a vast and imposing building that will be, first of all, the administrative headquarters of all the officials of tho self-governing Dominions; secondly, a rendezvous for all l visiting Britons from overseas; thirdly, an Imperial Covent Garden for the display of Canadian, Australian, Aew Zealand and South African prcduco; and, finally, an exhibition hall and permanent bureau of information. A Common Roof-tree. At present the political and commercial representatives of the Dominions m Great Britain, tho High Commissioners, and Consuls-.General, and so on, work under no common roof-tree. They are separately and inconveniently housed, eacli in his own. rather dingy mostly ill tno neighbourhood of 'Westminster, l'hey are cramped for space; there is nothing distinctive. as there should be, about their location and environment; to get at ttem one must go to lialf a dozen different addresses in nearly as many streets. Lord Grey wishes to make Dominion House not merely the official and administrative and commercial, but also, in s sense, tho social headnuarters °t y lO Younger nations. Ho intends it to becomo a rallying point for tourists ami business men from the Dominions, a place where they can be sure of finding comfortable lounge and reading rooms tilled with the overseas papers and magazines; a restaurant, a swimming-bath 111 tuo basement —in short, all tho accessories and conveniences, except bedrooms, or a well-appointed club. . What, however, most appeals to him, next to the material and sentimontal value of concentrating at one spot all the omcial activities of tho Dominions, is the possibility of using Dominion Hou«-9 pj* a means of pushing tho produce of tho l)o----minions in Great Britain and of pushing British manufactures throughout the dominions. Lord Grey has convinced hj 111 " self by repeated per.?onal inquiries that the fruits," wines, tobacco, game-birds, and dairy produce of tho Dominions are nothing like as well known in Great Britain as they should bo; that tho large stores are apt to discriminate against them in favour of. American or Continental importations; and that the establishment of a sort of Imperial Covent l *" den, confined to tho produce of the Dominions, is the first step to winning for them the market they deserve to find in the Mother Country.

Manufacturer and Exporter. Hand in hand with this scliemo and as a reciprocating and integral part of it, Lord Grey looks forward to providing the means of bringing the British manufacturer and exporter into closer touch with the Dominion consumer. To do this it h necessary, especially for the small insjn who cannot afford to make a complete study of local conditions throughout the Empire, that the goods and articles in use in the Dominions should bo actually vis--1 Together with this exhibit of actual samples, Lord Grey contemplates an 1111-10-dato trade-catalogue library, a reference department that will furnish all mformation as to statistics, prices, credits. Customs regulations, and local business methods, and a staff of organisers to work in close association with the- existing Trade Commissioners. lie believes that both the Imperial and the Dominion Governments, as well as the British manufacturers and tho Dominion producers, who would reap its first profits, would I join in subsidising and supporting so practical and mutually advantageous a scheme for developing trade within tno Emwhole proiect, it will be seen, has the true Grey "touch."—"Daily Mail."