1 OCTOBER 1937, Page 6

Later on you find the British, set at a fine

vantage-point on the bank of the Seine at the end of the Pont de Iena, a site crying out, it would seem, for imposing treatment. In fact the site is just half what was offered, and just half what Belgium, across the way, has taken. The British Government decided not to spend more than £35,000. It has had to spend more, but not much, I gather, over £50,000. The German outlay is said to reach £300,000 ; the Russian cannot be much less. On the site so restricted by economy there has been planted a square white box, quite businesslike, quite incon- spicuous, with an unsuccessful design representing industry in the middle and one otherwise blank wall. Inside is a set of exhibits well and wisely chosen, given the limits of expen- diture set by the Cabinet (or the Treasury). Everything ambitious has been eschewed. There is nothing to suggest that Great Britain makes any machine larger than a wireless set, or that it possesses an ounce of coal or iron, or that it has made any contribution to scientific research or discovery.