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Wonderful to be here
Page 103
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SOME have come to look, some are here to buy; some of the craftier are noting what we haven't got so they can sell it to us next time around — whatever the reason, by the end of the Show a heck of a lot of visitors from abroad will have passed
through the Earls Court exhibits. _ They are considered of enough importance by the organisers of the Show that a special Overseas Visitors' Lounge (where is the UK Visitors' Lounge, hmmm?) is provided serving lunches and drinks at prices that are high for British visitors.
This is, presumably, where all those fascinating business deals involving Swiss parts for German trucks to be assembled in Spain, and paid for in American dollars from a Hong Kong bank, are consummated.
American and Irish
Most of the overseas visitors seem to be Americans, with a strong showing by the Irish.
Surprisingly there appear to be very few Arabs (have they run out of money already?) or if they are there they weren't wearing burnooses and things, so we couldn't find them.
We couldn't find any Africans either, or many mainland Asians, but there were a lot of Japanese (all too busy selling things to speak to us), a lot of Germans (ditto), and some Canadians, whom we at first mistook for Americans.
Nearly everyone likes the Show, nearly everyone is
pleased to be here, and most — with a few exceptions — indicate that they.can't wait for the Show to be moved to Birmingham.
Our Eastern European friends seem particularly pleased to be here. They have seemingly learned enough about Western techniques to adapt themselves to the business of flogging a lot of merchandise as quickly as possible.
If it's any consolation to our harassed businessmen, the general view among the over seas visitors is that there are indeed some good, innovative British products that don't exist in their own countries.
Export boom, anyone?