THE MONARCHY
SIR,—If the rest of your recent correspondent's 'opinion on the subject of the monarchy, British Commonwealth, etc., are as ill-founded as the observation of the British contribution to the Seattle Fair, they cannot count for much.
Your correspondent learned—from the British press I presume—that it consisted 'largely of a queen in effigy and . . . a group of actors.'
As a Briton working abroad, I am too often dismayed by the lack of ability of British business- men to grasp and understand the opportunity of the North American market to let this slander go by.
It is true that in the foyer of the pavilion there was a small 'bring-the-customer-in' display of Elizabethan England then and now nonsense, but the rest of the exhibition was devoted to British research and achievements in science, technology, engineering and agriculture—all very shrewdly chosen, for they stressed the few areas in which the
British have a lead over American industry. Hover- craft, certain types of air and sea radar, application of atomic power, etc., were well displayed, using films and working models. I saw two groups of farmers, one from Saskatchewan, the other from Washington, gleefully investigating and making notes on a full-scale planting machine and tractor. There was not a part of the exhibition devoted to 'Ye Olde England,' which was probably a mistake, for this is the image the tourists are interested in and, whether one likes it or not, tourism in Britain is a major industry.
It is difficult to estimate until one has been work- ing in North America for some time how difficult and off-putting many English manners (the fixed upper-middle-class stare) and accents (very U or very regional) can be. In Seattle, however, the British staff were pleasant and had accents that even the mid-Western Americans could understand.
As one left the building the last exhibit, obviously rigged up at the last minute on the staff's own initiative, was a small radio instrument—a British development—that had played a key part in the rescue of Carpenter, a few days before, from his capsule in the sea. Knowing that the average American regards this as a sacred event, one can only smile at this master-stroke of propaganda.
If the exhibition could be faulted, it would be on the grounds of being too materialistic (too American?) for there were no books, paintings or anything cultural in the building. It is true the Old Vic were there and, I presume, as they played to full houses, they paid their own way.
Most of my American friends who have visited the Fair have told me the British exhibition was one of the best, and this is indeed a pleasant change.
As the exhibitors and Government are for once on the right track, it would be a pity to discourage them and perhaps make them return to the 'all is sweetness and light in Britain' image seen in the Brussels Fair of 1958.
A LLIN DAWES
31 Castle Frank Road, Toronto 5, Ontario
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