15 MARCH 1924, Page 14

THE BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION AND SOMEWHERE TO SLEEP. [To the

Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—S0 much has been said in the Press and elsewhere about the difficulty of accommodating visitors to London this summer in connexion with the British Empire Exhibition that we think you may like to know just how far we have gone in preparing a register of accommodation.

You will probably be aware that some little time ago Messrs. Thomas Cook and Sons and ourselves were appointed by the Board of the British Empire Exhibition to investigate the whole question of accommodation in and around London, with a view to finding out the numbers we could reasonably expect to accommodate during the months between the opening of the Exhibition in April and its close in October.

Since that time we have gone very carefully into the ques- tion, and we have already prepared a register which contains over 5,000 names. We are thus able to accommodate approximately 14,000 persons in apartments, and 11,000 in furnished houses and flats. Our lists are being added to every day as more and more people are coming to realize the desirability of being registered with the Official Bureau instead of depending on their individual efforts.

While Messrs. Thomas Cook and Sons are looking after .the question of hotels, we ourselves are concentrating on private accommodation, which includes flats and houses, both furnished and unfurnished, board-residence and the like. Between two and three hundred London house agents are co-operating with us in order to ensure that our lists shall be as comprehensive as possible, and we are in close touch with travel agencies both in this country and overseas.

In order to ensure that the best possible use will be made of the rooms available we are regarding such places as Brighton, Eastbourne, and many others which are within easy train journey from London as suburbs for the period of the Exhibi- ..tion, and we are including on our lists those people with accommodation throughout all the Home Counties.

We are sending you this formal statement on the subject in the hope that when visitors, particularly visitors from the North, realize the elaborate preparations that are being made to house them, they will be able to estimate at their true value the somewhat alarmist rumours which have got into circulation.

So far as organization can meet the difficulties caused by the large numbers of visitors who will undoubtedly come to London, that organization is already in being.—We are,

Sir, &c., WHITFIELD BAKER AND CO., LTD.

(H. Whitfield Baker, Managing Director.) The British Empire Exhibition, 5b Pall Mall, London, S.W.1.