§ 47 and 48. Mr. Ecclesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he will give instructions that the maturities of Treasury Deposit Receipts shall in future be 273 days for those issued in the first three months of the financial year and 182 days for those issued in the following nine months of the year;
(2) whether he will give instructions that the maturity of all Treasury Bills to be issued in the future shall be 91 days.
§ Sir S. CrippsNo, Sir. I am unwilling to disturb the present arrangements which have worked smoothly under a variety of conditions.
§ Mr. EcclesIs the Chancellor aware that that is not the opinion of the money market? The present arrangements do not enable the spacing out of maturities of Government obligations to suit the needs of credit. Will he look into these quite separate questions again in order that the bunching up of the revenue in the last three months of the financial year will not cause the disturbance which it does now?
§ Sir S. CrippsThe hon. Gentleman is wrong. It does not cause any disturbance. It is corrected by other methods. This has worked quite satisfactorily for a large number of years, and the majority of the people in the money market think it is suitable.
§ Mr. EcclesIs not the Chancellor very unprogressive? This is a simple way of tidying up our mechanism, and he will not take it because certain people in the City do not want it.