§ Mr. LIVINGSTONEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department what joint stock banks are 271W to be allowed to open branches in the British Empire Exhibition grounds at Wembley?
Mr. SAMUELI am informed by the British Empire Exhibition authorities that, under the arrangement existing between them and Lloyds Bank, that bank is alone permitted to have a branch in the grounds. I understand that Lloyds Bank were and are willing to waive their rights in this respect in favour of any other bank which is prepared to share the responsibility of financing the exhibition.
§ Mr. LIVINGSTONEasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department whether, when Lloyds advanced £1,800,000 to the Wembley Exhibition Association, the guarantees given by private guarantors were transferred to Lloyds Bank to secure the bank against loss; and whether any part of the advance is unsecured?
§ Mr. MORRISasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Overseas Trade Department (1) the date on which Lloyds Bank gave a loan to the Wembley Exhibition authorities; when the loan reached its present size; at what dates and by whom was the loan guaranteed; and on what dates were the guarantees, if any, given by the exhibition officials or others responsible for the exhibition finance;
(2) what is the amount of the present advance made by Lloyds Bank to the Wembley Exhibition authority; whether the bank has any security for this advance; and, if so, what is the nature and the amount of the security?
Mr. SAMUELThe guarantees by private persons, firms, etc.—amounting to £1,107,991 plus the Government guarantee of £100,000, making a total in ail of £1,207,991—were transferred, as they came in, to Lloyds Bank as security for the sums advanced by the bank from time to time to meet the disbursements of the exhibition. The only other cover given to the bank were:
(1) The title deeds of the, lands and buildings, the value of which it is at present impossible to determine; and
(2) the undertaking given by the late Government to seek the authority of Parliament to increase to £600,000 the then existing Government guarantee of £100,000.
272WOwing to the dissolution of Parliament, no formal guarantee in respect of the larger sum could be given. Against the cover the bank at one time had advanced to the exhibition a sum of £2,425,000, which, by the 1st November last, had been reduced to £1,600,000. The amount of the overdraft on the 26th February, less balance on current account, was £1,744,000, and it is in order that the bank may have security for such further sums, up to a maximum of £2,200,000, as may be required in order to finance the exhibition up to the closing in 1925, that Parliament is being asked to increase the Government guarantee to a total of £1,100,000.