§ MR. ALBAN GIBBS (London)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, with regard to the conditions prescribed by the Treasury for the security of Colonial Stock, in which a trustee may invest under the Colonial Stock Act, 1900, whether he will say in what respect the Jamaica Government Inscribed Stock issued in exchange for the First Mortgage Bonds of the Jamaica Railway Company falls short of those conditions and when and by what means it will be brought within them; and whether there exists any, and, if so, what reason why the Treasury should not further prescribe under that Act such conditions as will at once render available for investment by trustees any Colonial Stock which like the Jamaica Government Inscribed Stock referred to, is charged on the general revenues and assets of the colony in priority to advances from the Treasury secured thereon to the satisfaction of the Treasury and the Secretary of State under the Colonial Loans Act, 1899.
THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBER LAIN, Worcestershire, E.)It rests with the Government of the colony to take the necessary steps to comply with the Treasury conditions. I am not aware of anything which need prevent them from doing so.