“LEND TO DEFEND”

Franklin Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 22, 26 February 1940, Page 3

“LEND TO DEFEND”

WHAT BRITAIN 35 DOING “We have no right to expose our men to the dangers they have I. face unless we do provide them with the best of lighting instruments, and in order to do Unit there is a vast expense to be met which we must shoulder together. Everyone can do his utmost to strengthen and support the country by saving alt lie can and putting liis savings at tlie service of Britain by investing in tlie savings certificates and defence bonds. Let the response be a measure of our unity and of our determination.” —Sir John tfnnon. During' the first few weeks of the war finance compaign 13,250,000 national savings certificates were sold, and defence bonds to the value of £11,226,370 were also sold. The average weekly sales of certificates during Hie three months before the opening of the campaign were approximately 459,000. For the Allies this, says the Scotsman, is a war that will strain our re-

sources, financial and economic as military, and it is a war the successful waging of which is a vital interest of e'ery member of the community. We uust put all we can into the common effort till victory is won, and that all Includes, as an important contribution, our personal and family savings from now on.” “Those who happen to be earning more than before the war,” says the Daily Herald, "should put aside whatever they can and buy the new savings' certificates and defence bonds. “It is hardly at all true today that if you save you will throw people out of work, and that if businesses don’t prosper there will be no revenue for the Government. Basically, it is not revenue that the Government wants. “It wants machines and workers and goods, and if you save you release them for its use. Above all, you should spend less on purchases of goods from abroad. “it is your job, if you can, to save. It is the Government's to see that all the available men and machines are harnessed to the national effort.” “The Chancellor of the Exchequer,” writes Mr Francis W. Hirst, the economist, in the Yorkshire Observer, “has announced two new devices for attracting the voluntary savings of small investors —a new issue of savings certificates which are a little more generous than the old ones, and a 3 per cent bond which can be bought in £5 denominations. “In both cases the capital is safe, and the small investor need have no fear on that,head so long as the value of our currency is maintained. .<■ What is, above all, necessary now is that, while individuals should save all they can the public authorities should set themselves to eliminate the appalling waste that has grown up in connection with the A.R.P. and the multiplication of our little Hitlers.”

‘‘The success oi' these new offers,” asserts The Times, “will in any case he substantial; but it will be sensational if the offers are followed by convincing proof that the Government will reward patriotic lending in two ways, extending far beyond mere rates of interest.

“The first way is the elimination of waste and extravagance which so sorely try the patience of taxpayers. The second way is the pursuit of a properly organised and coherently guided economic policy which will ensure not only the effective blockading of the enemy, but the avoidance of an involuntary blockade of ourselves.”

“The yield on the new certificates,” prints out the Yorkshire Post, “if held for ten years, is approximately £3 '.-is per cent per annum. For the investor who is liable to tax at 7s 6d in the £, this is equivalent to £5 2s 6d per cent per annum, while for those who pay at half the standard rate, or 3s 9d in the £, the return is equivalent to £3 18s 9d per cent.

“The exceptional instance, in which an investor would find the new bonds more attractive than the certificates, relates to the person who is saving to meet some contingency expected within three or four years. The return on the certificates does not exceed £2 per cent (ill the end of the third year. Thus for a short investment, pari icularly where there is no liability to fax, the new bonds are the more attractive medium.”