§ I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman has just left, but I was going to tell the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Mr. Dalton) that the Financial Secretary had very good reason for limiting, as he did, the answer which he gave to him at Question Time. In order to make this plan watertight—and for other reasons also—I propose to prohibit the issue of bonus shares during the war, save in cases where entirely exceptional grounds exist, such as where two companies amalgamate and something has to be done to adjust the position.
§ While the Bill will tend to reduce spending power in the hands of the shareholder, it will tend to increase the reserves of companies built up from undistributed profits and will encourage the investment of a proportion of those reserves in Government loans.