§ Mr. EDEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, when the Departmental committee is set up in due course for the examination and amendment of the present Companies Act, 1929, he will include in the terms of reference power to consider proposals to the effect that every British bank, banking firm, or banking company operating under the Companies Act shall deduct from its published reserve in its published accounts the amount at which its premises account appears in those accounts, so that the amount represented by published reserves shall appear as a net reserve composed entirely of liquid and not partly of immobile assets?
§ Mr. W. R. SMITHMy hon. Friend's suggestion has been noted, but I would call his attention to the fact that every limited banking company is required to exhibit at its places of business a half-yearly statement which showsinter alia the respective amounts of its Government securities, bills of exchange and promissory notes, cash at bankers and other securities.
1954Wcommodities, the total declared value of the imparts into the United Kingdom, registered as consigned from the Soviet Union, during each of the years 1926 to 1930, and the first six months of 1931: