§ Mr. ELLIS DAVIESasked the Prime Minister whether his attention has been drawn to the statement of the Public Trustee at Liverpool that his investments of trust moneys were not confined to trust investments unless the trust instrument so limited him; and will he say under what authority the Public Trustee is, as he claims, entitled to ignore the rules binding on ordinary trustees as to the choice of investments for trust funds?
§ The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)The Public Trustee informs me that he does not claim to be entitled to ignore the rules binding on ordinary trustees as to the choice of investments of trust funds. The statement referred only to trust instruments in which investment clauses had actually been inserted. The Public Trustee was not dealing with the well-known rule of law that where there is no investment clause at all then a trustee is confined to trustee securities.
§ Mr. ELLIS DAVIESIs anyone liable for any depreciation which may take place in investments made by the Public Trustee according to his own account in foreign railways?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI must have notice of that?
§ Mr. BOTTOMLEYWill the right hon. Gentleman give special directions to the Public Trustee as to the exercise of his discretion in the matter of investments, or, rather, exercise special control over him in view of the disastrous record of this gentleman in the matter of investments in connection with the post he occupied as chairman of a brewery company before he was appointed to this position?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI have no control over the Public Trustee.