§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Anderson)I have a statement to make to the House regarding Savings Bonds. The total of the current issue of 3 per cent. Savings Bonds 1960–70 now amounts to £966,450,286 OS. 3d. I pro- 1171 pose to discontinue the issue at the close of business on 5th August. As from 8th August, and thereafter until further notice, subscriptions will be invited to a new issue of Savings Bonds. The rate of interest will be 3 per cent., payable half-yearly on 15th February and 15th August. The bonds will be issued at par. They will be repaid at par on 15th August, 1975, at the latest, but the Treasury will have a right to redeem them at par on and after 15th August, 1965, on giving three months' notice. The House will be glad to note that we are again able to extend the period for which we borrow at 3 per cent. and are therefore maintaining the progressive improvement on the terms on which we have raised our loans in this war. I am confident that the new issue will be welcomed and well supported.
§ Mr. Pethick-LawrenceI should like to say that the House will be glad, and I am sure that the country will be glad, that we have been able to reverse the policy of the last war, in which the rate of interest went up all the time. In this case we have kept it down, and this issue is at half the rate which was in operation at the close of the last war.
§ Sir Herbert WilliamsMay I ask whether the Chancellor does not realise how meanly he is treating lenders in this country, as compared with Russia, where they get double?
§ Mr. StokesMay I ask the Chancellor whether he will make clear to the public that borrowing a double quantity at half the amount leaves us in just the same mess as before? Three per cent. is far too high.