§ Mr. ARMITAGEasked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the statements published in the Seventh Report from the Select Committee on National Expenditure (Session 1920) that His Majesty's Government subscribed in 1917 for $3,000,000 6 per cent. first mortgage gold bonds in the British-America Nickel Corporation, and that the corporation undertook to pay interest on the loan at 6 per cent. per annum and to repay the principal with interest in five annual instalments from the 1st January, 1920, and that no interest on, or any instalment of, the loan has been paid; and whether any, 588W and, if so, what steps have been taken to carry out the recommendations of the Select Committee that an immediate effort should be made to recover as much of the capital as practicable, and that no further liability be incurred in the matter?
§ Sir P. LLOYD-GREAMEThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. With regard to the recommendation of the Select Committee, a scheme has been put forward by the British-America Nickel Corporation with the object of raising further working capital and modifying the rights attaching to the various capital issues of the corporation, but no further liability is imposed on His Majesty's Government under the scheme. I am advised that the scheme offers the best prospects of a satisfactory realisation of the investment, and that a forced sale of the property at the present time would entail a certain heavy loss to His Majesty's Government.