BRITISH DOLLAR-HOLDINGS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 February 1940, Page 8

BRITISH DOLLAR-HOLDINGS

TREASURY’S FIRST CALL. [pY CABLE>t-PRESS aSBI7 —COPXBIGHT.] jJ*.- / -■ • ' .LONDON, February 19. _A Treasury order announces the first call on Britain’s dollar st It compels investors in the United Kingdom with l|oidings-in 60 nominated United States railway and industrial undertakings to sell to the Government. It is hoped 'that ttie investors will re? invest in British Government stocks. It is believed that £2'4,000,000 is involved? Saturday’s VV’all Street .prices ivlii- be paid 1 , thia rate of exchange being 'four dollars three and a-half : cents. . t A report from New'York says that the sequestration of British investors’ holdings of leading American stocks is j generally welcomed, as it is ■felt that liquidation- by the Bank of England will be far more orderly than by-sinall holders. There is no hint of a shortage of dollar exchange, as the large, British balances are constantly replenished -by steady sales of gold and securities. The Federal Reserve Board estimates that the Empire’s holdings of good securities in the United States exceed 3,00Q,Q00,0f10 dollars. The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says it is felt that the sequestration of British investors’ holdings in America- may portend the expansion of. British purchases from the United States.

WALL STREET RECEPTION. (Recd. February 20, 2 p.m.) NEW YORK, February 19. The mobilisation of American securities has not affected the stock market appreciably. Some of the mobilised stocks firmed.