§ 2. Mr. Allasonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the Treasury wrote in August and September to firms who had not increased their dividend distribution in terms accusing them of a breach of duty.
§ The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Niall MacDermot)As I have already told the hon. Member, no such accusations were intended and any contrary impression is regretted.
§ Mr. AllasonSurely the Treasury might have made some elementary inquiries before making these fairly serious reproaches against the firms concerned. I have in my hand a letter, with a long diatribe about the iniquity of increasing dividends, which is addressed to a firm which in fact reduced its dividends.
§ Mr. MacDermotI, too, have a copy of a letter, but it does not bear any comparison with the description which the hon. Gentleman has given. I do not know whether we are talking about the same letter.