Britain Can Make It
The exhibition "Britain Can Make It," sponsored by the Council of Indastrial Design and opened by the King at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Tuesday, is heartening evidence of Britain's quick powers of recuperation from a war economy. As the King said in his speech, the idea was conceived a few days after the Japanese armistice, and Britain is the first fighting country to stage anexhibition of this scope. Nearly 18,000 items, covering furniture, pottery, utensils, toys, books and clothing, were submitted by 3,582 firms for exhibition, and of these nearly 6,000 have been selected. Not all these are yet on the market-36 per cent. available for the home market and 412 per cent. for the export market—but in the end just over 5o per cent. will be available at home and over 6o per cent. abroad. Not only are manufacturers recovering from the war ; they are utilising was-time developments, as new uses for aluminium, plastics and rubber show. But rapid recovery is not sufficient. It must be accompanied by good design. As Sir Stafford Cripps pointed out in a broadcast on the exhibition, more than half of the £400,000,000 worth of goods we exported before the war depended largely on design for their sales. Britain has had a name for good traditional design ; she needs now to excel in new design as well. The manufacturers exhibiting have shown a lively consciousness of new styles ; but unfortunately the British public lags far behind in taste—as their homes and the shops of cheap wares testify. More education is needed, for manufacturers, though now, concentrating on foreign markets, are bound in the long run to be influenced by what people will buy at home. An exhibition such as " Britain Can Make It," therefore, is performing a, double function. It acts as an invitation to foreign purchasers and an education to people at home.
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