CANADA'S DEBTS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 7, 8 July 1931, Page 10

CANADA'S DEBTS

WAR CONYEESION LOAN

MAGNIFICENT RESPONSE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, 27th May.

One %vcek after the Prime Minister of Canada announced Ms £50,000,000 conversion, .loan, £120,000,000 wag taken up'by the people of the Dominion. Its enthusiastic.. reception, from Vancouver to Halifax, indicates more completely than anything else how Canadians retain complete confidence in their country. This challenge to patriotism, no less urgent than in wartime, involved carrying a big project through to a successful conclusion. The overwhelming support tendered it enhances the financial prestige of Canada in the eyes 'of the whole ■world. And it was done entirely without publicity. A I ten-minute statement by the Prime Minister in the House at Ottawa was all the announcement the loan received. When the- total he •■ asked was reached in three days, Mr. Bennett shrewdly decided to let the people go on displaying their confidence.

War loan and Victory bonds were approaching maturity. Cash was at the Federal Treasury to redeem them. But the opportunity was eagerly taken up to convert these holdings ' into bonds extending over a further poriod of 15 to 25 years. The issue marks the beginning of the greatest- financial operation in the history of Canada— the refunding of the heavy volume of obligations incurred during the ' Great War. .

The same interest payments and tax-free 'privileges apply. Tho bonds will carry interest at the rate of 4} per cent., which, in the opinion of loading investment bankers, is a comparatively generous return, in. view of interest rates now prevailing in the London and New York markets.

Canadian Government bonds are regarded as gilt-edged. Throughout the current period of drastic deflation they havo maintained, stability and strength. The public arc, just now, seeking security first, and the manner in which this conversion loan issue- was taken'1 up iudicatcs that it offers the maximum degree of safety. Tho Government of this country has never appealed to '.tho people in vain. Ono of tho most colourful chapters of Canadian history is the record of wartime financing. The prosent appeal was no Jess urgent. The response shows that the Government and the Prime Minister.are now assured of the fullest public support when tho time comes for refunding the balance of the obligations of tho Groat AVar.