§ "15. That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding£5,000, be granted to Her Majesty, to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1899, for Superannuation, Retired, Compensation, and Compassionate Allowances."
§ "16. That a sum, not exceeding£58,516, be granted to Her Majesty, to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1899, to make good the sum by which the Interest accrued in the year ended 20th November 1898, from Securities held by the National Debt Commissioners, on account of 'The Fund for the Banks for Savings' and 'The Fund for Friendly Societies' was insufficient to meet the Interest which the said Commissioners are obliged by Statute to Pay and Credit to Trustees of Savings Banks and to Friendly Societies; and also the sum by which the Interest accrued in the year ended 31st December 1898, from Securities held by the National Debt Commissioners on account of 'The Post Office Savings Bank Fund,' was insufficient to meet the Interest which the said Commissioners are obliged by Statute to Pay and Credit to Depositors and the Expenses incurred during that year in the execution of the Acts relating thereto."
§ MR. BARTLEY (Islington, N.)I do not wish, at this hour of the night to raise a discussion on this question, but it is a little unfortunate that the Estimate came on quite unexpectedly on Friday evening just before Twelve. The question of the granting of money out of taxation to such a large amount as this, which is over£50,000, to make up the loss on Savings Banks is serious, but there is a far more serious matter involved, namely, the enormous liability of the country to pay at call some£120,000,000 which is held in those banks. This amount is increasing each year by some£8,000,000 or £10,000,000 sterling. Further, the gravity of the case is increased by the incident of last autumn when we were within measurable distance of a war, and even the fear of war made Consols fall to 105 or 106; and had war been declared they would have gone very much lower and far below par. At the same time the country would have had to borrow, and we should have seen the anomaly of persons withdrawing from the Post Office in large amounts at great loss to the Post Office in order to take up a better paying security in the shape of a new loan. The leading financiers of London are fully alive to the danger of the present system, and I 752 trust that the Government will have the courage to face facts and to grant a Committee or a Commission to inquire into this subject in all its important and even vital bearings on the financial stability of the country in case of emergency such as war.