§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whether his attention has been called to the failure of Messrs. Greenway, Smith, and Greenway, Bankers, of Warwick and Leamington, on the 6th of September last; whether he is aware that it appears from the public examitions and the accounts in bankruptcy 156 that the Bank had been carried on for many years without any capital; that about £300,000 deposited in the Bank by upwards of 1,000 customers has been lust; that upwards of £100,000 of this amount was appropriated and spent by Messrs. Greenway personally after they knew that the Bank was insolvent; that a further sum of upwards of £100,000 was advanced without security to a cousin of Messrs. Greenway, and that the only substantial available asset appears to be about £40,000 owing by customers upon overdrawn accounts; whether he is aware that it also appears from such examinations that extensive removal of property from the residences of two of the partners took place after the stoppage of the Bank; that immediately after the stoppage the partners took from the till £195 in cash for their private expenditure, and that on the day before the stoppage large sums were received by the Bank from customers, although on the same day the Bank clerks and their friends were allowed to draw out the amounts standing to their credit; whether he is aware that much distress has been caused by the failure; whether any stops have been taken to bring the conduct of the Messrs. Greenway before a Court of Justice; whether, in December last, the Official Receiver reported to the Board of Trade that the answers given by the bankrupts at their public examination, and information obtained from other sources, had disclosed offences under the Bankruptcy Act; whether the Board of Trade will at once call upon the Official Receiver to send in a full Report, together with Reports from his solicitors; and, Whether the Board of Trade will cause an independent investigation to be made into all the circumstances relating to the failure?
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON)(who replied) (Manchester, N.E.)I have been requested to answer this Question. A full investigation into all the circumstances has been made, under instructions from the Board of Trade. The Official Receiver has been requested to submit his Report on the case; and until the Board of Trade has decided on the course to be adopted it is desirable, in the public interest, that the answer to the Question of the hon. Member should be postponed.