Imperial Images: The Empire Marketing Board, 1926-32
Buying and selling with our 'kith and kin' was the hallmark of an intensive inter-war campaign for the idea of Empire.
Leo Amery, in his political autobiography, related an incident which occurred after a visit he made to the Empire Exhibition at Wembley in May 1925:
Coming away in the train once from one of the many Exhibition functions in which I took part, I heard one of two well-dressed ladies tell the other how impressed she had been with the 'Chinese' Pavilion (meaning, of course, the Hong Kong one). 'I think you mean Japanese my dear; China doesn't yet belong to us'.
Successful though the Exhibition was at stimulating interest in the Empire, it also revealed an alarming depth of ignorance on the part of the British public. When an opportunity to attempt to rectify this occurred one year later, Amery seized it eagerly and through the Empire Marketing Board (of which he was Chairman) mounted a remarkable publicity campaign to 'promote' the Empire. Its aim 'was to project an image of the British Empire to the general public in order to stimulate Empire trade.
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