§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer if, he can name any time within the life of the present generation at which Consols have fallen to so low a level as at the present time; and what steps he proposes to take to restore the national
† See (4) Debates, clxxix., 1211.1829 credit, and to save the depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank who have been induced to invest the product of their thrift in Consols from the losses attending the realisation of their little capital.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (MR. ASQUITH, Fife, E.)With 2½per Cent. Consols at 82½, the cost of an annuity of £3 is £99. In 1885 a similar annuity from Consols (then a 3 per cent. stock) could he purchased for £94 7s. 6d., while at no time between 1864 and 1878 would it have cost more than £98 10s. In 1866 it fell as low as £84. With regard to the rest of the lion, and gallant Member's Question, I do not think I can usefully add anything to my recent statements in this House in reply to similar questions and upon other occasions.
§ SIR HOWARD VINCENTCould not notice be issued to Post Office Savings Bank depositors, warning them that they may lose—as some have already done— £30 per £100 by these investments?
§ MR. ASQUITHDepositors are carefully warned in the regulations that the Government cannot guarantee them against loss.
§ MR. BOWLES (Lambeth, Norwood)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in order to complete the statement given in the Finance Accounts of the contingent liabilities of the State, he can state the amounts by which the funds now held by the National Debt Commissioners are insufficient to meet the possible claims of depositors in the Post Office Savings Bank, the trustees of trustee savings banks, and the trustees of friendly societies respectively.
§ MR. ASQUITHIt was the practice until recently to include in the statement given in the Finance Accounts an estimate of the contingent liability of the Consolidated Fund in respect of the funds in question. The estimate was arrived at by valuing the securities held for the funds at their current market price. But the Select Committee on the Savings Banks Funds in 1902 condemned such valuations as misleading in the case of these funds. Accordingly, since the passing of the Savings Banks Act, 1904, which carried out the recommendation of 1830 the Committee, the estimate of possible liability has been omitted, and has been replaced by a general statement that the Consolidated Fund is liable to make good any amount by which the several funds may prove deficient