§ Sir HENRY KIMBERasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his attention has been called to a notice issued on 18th May by the Inland Revenue Department notifying that dividends entrusted by Colonial companies to an agent in this country for payment here (presumably for shareholders resident either here or abroad), and also like dividends which, although not entrusted to an agent in this country for payment, are realised in the United Kingdom through bankers and others; and whether he is aware that, in 1186 consequence of this notice, Colonial companies are now considering arrangements for the payment of their dividends through bankers abroad and the removal of such business from their agents in this country; and whether he has considered the loss of business thus involved to the mercantile community, the volume of such business, and the business connected or consequent thereon being large, and affecting more or less all the British Colonial mining companies in the Empire and their connection with the mother country?
§ Mr. LLOYD-GEORGENo new departure is involved in the issue of the notice referred to in the question, it having been the custom now for many years past to issue similar notices on the passing of the Income Tax Resolution. There does not appear to me to be anything in the present notice which should cause any alteration in the arrangements made by Colonial companies for the payment of their dividends.