COMING EXPOSITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1938, Page 12

COMING EXPOSITION

SAN FRANCISCO’S BIG PROJECT. WIDE INTERNATIONAL SCOPE. SAN FRANCISCO. Ten important countries of Latin America have now announced their intention to participate in the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, it was reported recently by Major O. J. Keatinge, Chief of Foreign Participation for the Exposition.

They are Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. With two special Exposition commissioners in South America and another in Central America, working in the interest of participation, and General William E. Gillmore, Chief of the Division of Governmental Participation for the Exposition, on a goodwill air tour of all Latin America, it is expected that many more Latin American republics will join their sister nations within the next few weeks in announcing their intention to take part in the coming Pageant of the Pacific. The wide international scope of the Exposition is seen in the rapidly mounting acceptances of nations all over the world made in reply to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s invitation to take part in the great San Francisco World’s Fair. To date, 36 foreign lands have indicated, either officially through diplomatic channels or unofficially, that they would send exhibits here in 1939.

Many of these countries will build their own pavilions on Treasure Island, unique 400-acre man-made site pf the Exposition, while others will arrange for displays in the huge Pacific International Palace. Among the countries erecting their own buildings are Brazil, Japan, the Dutch East Indies, Johore, French Indo-China, Italy, and Norway.

A cultural'rather than a commercial project, the Golden Gate International Exposition will bring to San Francisco in 1939 the outstanding in distinctive native crafts, art, science, and historical backgrounds of the participating countries. Tourism also will be strongly stressed. Another important feature of the 50,000,000-dollar World’s Fair, with its anticipated attendance . of 20,000,000, will be a great Inter-American Travel Congress, designed to cement the growing unity and friendship of the countries of North and South America, and to iron out all existing trade and travel barriers. This congress, the first of its kind ever held, is sponsored jointly by the Golden Gate International Exposition and the PanAmerican Union.