CAPTAIN CRAIGI beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is in a position to inform the House of the details of the scheme submitted to the Treasury by Sir Alexander Henderson to raise £40,000,000 at 2¾ per cent to relieve the present deadlock in land purchase in Ireland; whether the Treasury have accepted the proposal; and, if not, will he say why?
§ MR. LLOYD-GEORGENo definite scheme for raising a sum of £40,000,000 at 2¾ per cent. interest has been laid before the Treasury. Suggestions have indeed been made and discussed for the temporary raising of funds by the issue of short-dated securities which might be expected to command better terms than the guaranteed 2¾ per cent. stock. But such proposals are open to the objection that they provide merely for a postponement of the present difficulties. Whether any ultimate advantage could be gained would depend upon the price at which stock might have to be issued when the time came for paying off the short securities.