§ DR. MACNAMARAI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, having regard to the fact that the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt have not been summoned to meet on the business of the Post Office Savings Bank Fund since the establishment of the bank in 1861, he will now cause the Commissioners to be summoned 1377 for the purpose of taking their opinion as to the propriety of repealing so much of the Savings Bank Act, 1904, as relates to the release of the Postmaster-General and the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt from the obligation of preparing balance-sheets of the Post Office Savings Bank and the Trustee Savings Banks respectively; and as to the desirability of informing the Treasury of the deficiency in the assets of the Post Office Savings Bank (present amount unknown, but £11, 033, 000 on December 31st, 1903), in order that such deficiency may be issued out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, or out of the growing produce thereof, in accordance with the provisions of 24 and 25 Vict., c. 14, s. 6.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, Worcestershire, E. )No, Sir. I see no reason for taking the unprecedented course proposed in the Question.