CO129-629-5 Purchase of the Law and Sayer picture collection by the Government of Hong Kong 1-6-1951 - 31-12-1951 — Page 17

54471/51

Colonial office, Church House,

162x

Gt. Smith Street,

S. W. 1.

December, 1951.

17 DU 195

I am sorry that we have been so long in replying to your letter of the 23rd November. We have been scratching our heads to try and find some way of organizing an informal exhibition and I very much regret that in the end we have been unable to arrange

one.

This is a great disappointment to us, as I fear it will be to you. But, as Anderson said when you and he and Grimwood talked the matter over, the main difficulty has been that we have no authority for spending anything on such an exhibition, however small the sum that might be necessary, This lack of funds has meant that we cannot overcome the various snags pointed out to us by the Crown Agents

· vis

(a) transport would have to be arranged to

carry the pictures to and from the place of exhibition.

(b) apparently an exhibition would complicate

the insurance of the pictures.

(c) when Bolton & Fairhead were consulted they

did not like the idea of an exhibition much, as it would mean sorting the Law collection in the warehouse and splitting it into pictures to be exhibited and those that were not to be.

D.J. Sloss, Esq., C.B.E., L1.D., M.A.

/Added