§ Mr. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to the fact that in each of the last five years there has been a deficiency in the income account of the Post Office 1332 Savings Bank, varying from £88,000 to £119,000; whether a valuation of the assets of the Post Office Savings Bank Fund at market values would disclose a deficiency of more than £10,000,000 in the capital account; whether, seeing that the taxpayers year by year make good the deficiency in the capital account, he will consider the advisability of giving full official information as to the financial position of the Post Office Savings Bank, and, if a valuation of the assets at market prices is held to be misleading, will he devise some other method by which the taxpayers may be informed as to the financial position of the institution.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) The deficiencies on the income account of the Post Office Savings Bank Fund in the last few years have been as stated in the Question. I am unable to say what would be the result of a valuation of the assets of the fund at current market prices, because the practice of publishing such a valuation has been discontinued under the Savings Bank Act, 1904, in pursuance of the recommendation of the Select Committee of 1902, who described that method of valuation as misleading. It is impossible in the nature of things to devise any method of valuation which would show whether any burden will hereafter fall upon the Exchequer in respect of the capital liabilities of the Post Office Savings Banks and, if so, the amount of that burden, everything depends upon the dates at which it may be necessary to realise the securities on behalf of the fund and on the prices which may then be obtainable for those securities, things which cannot be foreseen.