OPENED FROM SUSSEX

Evening Star, Issue 22145, 27 September 1935, Page 15

OPENED FROM SUSSEX

TORONTO EXHIBITION At 1.15 a.m. on August 23 Mr J. H. Thomas, Secretary for the Dominions, pressed an electric button in a room at his house in Hove, Sussex, and lit up the British Section of the Canadian National Exhibition 'at Toronto, 3,600 miles away, <says ' the ‘ Daily. Telegraph.’ The tiny electric impulse travelled from Mr Thomas’s house to Hove Post Office; thence to Tower Chambers, Moorgate, E.C., the Central Telegraph Station of Cable aud Wireless Ltd., across whose Atlantic cable system it passed to Canada, via Porthcuruo in Cornwall, Harbour Grace, Halifax, Montreal, and so on to Toronto. The British .section of the exhibition was opened by Sir Francis Flood, United Kingdom High Commissioner in Canada, who, as soon as Mr Thomas released the 5 current, sent him the following message:— “ You have just lighted up the British Section of the Canadian National Exhibition, and 1 have declared it officially open. “ It is a most representative and ad-mirably-arranged exhibit of United Kingdom products, and the British Section of the Toronto Board of Trade, who have organised it, are to be warmly congratulated on the result of their work. “ On their behalf, and on behalf of all the United Kingdom exhibitors, I wish to thank you for your part in these proceedings and for the interest you have always displayed in the development of closer trade relations between the Dominion and the Old Country. AID TO TRADE. “ The Canadian National Exhibition, which is visited each year by very large numbers of people from North America, affords a unique opportunity for the display of products of the British Commonwealth as a whole, and the strong -sentiment of attachment .to the Mother Country which exists throughout Canada will, I am sure, contribute materially to an increase in the volume of interimperial trade.”

To this Mr Thomas replied:— “ I have received your message with much satisfaction, and I am glad of this opportunity to send greetings to Canada, to the authorities of the Canadian National Exhibition, and to all the representatives of the different parts of the British Commonwealth who aregathered . together for the opening of the British section of the exhibition.

11 His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom attach great importance to a further development of Empire trade, and they are confident that the notable skill and .enterprise, of which the exhibition affords such striking evidence, can be relied upon to maintain the high reputation which British products enjoy all over the world. v

Mr Thomas added that he warmly appreciated the, work done by the British Section of, the Toronto Board of Trade in organising such a splendid exhibit of United Kingdom products. He was sure that their efforts would be of benefit both to our own people here and to the people of Canada.