§ 49. Sir H. Williamsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a White Paper furnishing full particulars of the sterling balances now standing to the credit of Empire and Allied countries and their relationship to our expenditure and debt position.
§ Sir J. AndersonNo, Sir. While totals have been published it would not be in the public interest to publish details at the present time.
§ Sir H. WilliamsWould my right hon. Friend give me some indication of when this great secret will be revealed? The other people know about it.
§ Sir J. AndersonI do not think they do. It is important to understand the nature of these balances. They are not, in the main, inter-Governmental at all, and they do not figure in the public accounts. They represent an accumulated adverse balance in most cases.
§ 50. Sir H. Williamsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer in what bank or banks the sterling balances belonging to Empire and Allied countries are kept.
§ Sir J. AndersonI am assured that these balances are held with the usual banking correspondents of their owners, but it would not be right for me to institute special inquiry with a view to making the particulars public.
§ Sir H. WilliamsCould my right hon. Friend indicate which of our joint stock banks is now showing an accumulation of about £3,000,000,000 of deposits above its normal deposits?
§ Sir J. AndersonIt is not necessarily in joint stock banks at all.
§ Sir H. WilliamsWhy is it that the Bank of England reveal the fact that they hold many hundreds of million pounds of Treasury bills?
§ Sir J. AndersonI think my hon. Friend knows that the relations between bank and client are regarded as confidential.