§ MR. ASTBURY (Lancashire, Southport)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he can say at what date the £5,000,000 guaranteed loan to the Transvaal will be required; and what form the issue will take.
§ MR. ASQUITHI understand from the Transvaal Government that the sum required by them for the purpose to which the loan is to be applied during the next twelve months is not likely to exceed £1,000,000. In these circumstances, I do not contemplate an issue of Transvaal stock in the current financial year. But it is proposed that the Transvaal Government should, in the Act which authorises the raising of the loan of £5,000,000, take powers to borrow temporarily, in anticipation of the issue of the permanent loan, by means of some form of short-dated security to be guaranteed by His Majesty's Government, and to be repaid out of the proceeds of the permanent loan when it is issued. I may add that arrangements are being made by which any fresh public issue, either of local loans stock or of guaranteed 2¾ per cent stock for Irish land purchase, before 31st 884 December next will be avoided. The raising of £1,000,000 for the Transvaal, either in one sum or by two installments, by securities of not more than one year's currency, thus represents the maximum demand which is likely to be made upon the money market, in respect of now loans for which His Majesty's Government is either directly or indirectly responsible for some time to come.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR (City of London)asked when the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to introduce the Transvaal Loan Bill.
§ MR. ASQUITHIn the first place, the Bill cannot be introduced until there has been a Resolution in Committee and it has been reported; and that Resolution cannot be moved in Committee until the Transvaal Legislature has passed its own Act.