Abstract
The final acts in building the British Empire Exhibition before the gates officially opened to the public were opening ceremonies held at the Empire Stadium, culminating in a speech by George V. The monarch spoke about “developing the family estate” in a carefully worded statement sent out via radio and telegraph to “the nation” and “the empire.” The king’s forecast of a glittering imperial future travelled across Britain, where public audiences assembled to hear the broadcast, but was also telegraphed to India, the colonies, and the dominions. The monarch discussed the empire inclusively as a common possession of the British “family,” his choice of words suggestively recognizing the need to uphold a common vision that presented the empire as a solution to Britain’s declining economic and political influence while offering “progress” and “development” to sympathizers in India and the colonial empire.1 The exhibition’s opening was the culmination of five years of organizing work that brought various components of the empire into closer communication. This chapter traces the exhibition from its background and early stirrings in imperial politics and experiences of the war to the opening of the fairground on St. George’s Day in 1924. An examination of preparations for the exhibition in Britain suggests how, during difficult times in the imperial “mother country,” the exhibition promoted India, the colonies, and the dominions as patriotic emblems and solutions to both Britain’s lack of industrial competiveness and mounting fears of “national decline.”
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Notes
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© 2013 Daniel Stephen
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Stephen, D. (2013). “Developing the Family Estate”. In: The Empire of Progress. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137325129_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137325129_2
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