"Your presence here to-day, Ma'am, sets the seal on a great work. Some here today will remember the beginnings. The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies was housed in an old building in a corner of Russell Square, with quite inadequate working and library space, its staff a dedicated few led by the great exemplar Sir David Hughes Parry; and with few visiting scholars. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law, in a small set of chambers in the Temple, was struggling for survival with a few books, no money, but a dynamic Norman Marsh at the head. The intervening years have seen the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies become the greatest Law Library in England, with students thronging in from all the world over, and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law has become a hive of communication between the lawyers of the nations - from which the busy bees come and go, gathering knowledge as pollen to fertilize the dry places of law. Both Institutes owe much to the help of the Nuffield and Ford Foundations. And with this great building the way is set for further advance. Those who work here will, I trust, see in it an inspiration. This noble edifice and these fine rooms will afford a setting for greater understanding of the discipline of the law, not only in England, but throughout the world. As you have said, Ma'am, our thanks go out to Sir Charles Clore, whose great generosity has been the foundation of the whole venture: and may I add also our thanks to Mr. Barnett Shine, for it is due to his great help that the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, under the able direction of Professor Kenneth Simmonds, has been able to participate in this venture. Moreover, I would remind all of you of the great work done by Sir Noman Anderson. It is due to his immense ability, energy and enthusiasm that it has been carried through to completion.
But chiefest of all Ma'am, our thanks are to You for coming here to-day, as Chancellor of this great University of London, to send us on our way, rejoicing in the achievements of the past, and looking forward to the challenge of the future. "