78 
BANQUET IN GUILDHALL 
indefatigable member of the Congress to spend 35 hours listening to papers or sitting 
on Committees. The most ardent excursionist could spend 36 hours on what are 
described by the Organizers, with a clear sense of guilt, as “Technical excursions com 
bined with sightseeing”, but to balance this, all members whatever their tastes could 
spend no less than 18 hours at evening junketing of one sort or another. 
Ladies and gentlemen, was this a congress really worthy of support by our 
hypothetical committee? Was it a serious congress with so much provision made for the 
entertainment of ladies? Before 1 answer those rhetorical questions let me pose and 
answer one or two more. What do I remember of International Congresses in my own 
modest career? Do 1 remember the remarkable paper by Prof X and the tremendous 
discussion by Dr Y? The answer I’m afraid is No! What I do remember is the wonder 
ful clam bake in Woods Hole: the early morning in a night club in Rio: dinner in the 
Akershus in Oslo: snatching a drink before 6 p.m. in Adelaide (what is uninvitingly 
called the 6 o’clock swill); swimming in the Sound near Copenhagen; visiting the Zoo 
in Dublin; roast beef in Buenos Aires; the Trout Inn at Godstow. Talking shop, arguing, 
eating, drinking, making friends with men of like interests whose work is as familiar 
as one’s own. That is what an international congress must provide, these opportunities 
for meeting and for making friends. A few papers are useful as an introduction but what 
I look forward to is the day when someone has the courage to hold a congress in an 
English market town where the organisers have some influence with the licensing 
justices and we can have a programme on these lines: Prof A and Dr B will argue in 
the Blue Boar. Herr X and Senhor H will talk in the Blacksmith’s Arms: Prof Z and 
Prof K will think aloud in the White Hart and Monsieur D will criticize them and so on 
every morning with infinite variations of pub and personality. The afternoon will be 
devoted to soothing excursions to points of no scientific but much scenic interest and 
the evenings to mild social functions including, on occasion, discussion and darts. 
You, Sir, have provided a congress with an almost equal balance of hard papers 
and mild excursions and with a salting of social events. The small taste I have had of 
your congress suggests that the ratio is correct. Although the total of hours that you 
have devoted to entertaining your guests is relatively small, into those hours you have 
packed a concentrated and gracious hospitality for which I have the honour to express 
the great gratitude of your guests. You, Sir, may not have provided us with pubs but 
you have pampered us in palaces. On behalf of your guests I thank you. 
LIST OF OFFICIAL GUESTS 
Principal Guests 
The Rt Hon, The Lord Mayor of The Rt Hon, Lord Mills, KBE, 
London, Sir Edmund Stockdale and Paymaster-General and 
The Lady Mayoress. The Rt Hon Lady Mills. 
Other Official Guests 
(in alphabetical order) 
J. E. P. Bardsley, Esq, (President, the Royal Photographic Society) and Mrs 
Bardsley. 
Sir Lindor Brown, C B E (Vice-President, the Royal Society) and Lady Brown. 
Rear-Admiral P. W. Burnett, C B, DSO, DSC (Secretary, The Royal In 
stitution of Chartered Surveyors). 
Brigadier P. J. Clapham, O B E (Common Cryer & Serjeant-at-Arms).