Conscription Of Britain's U.S. Dollars

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1940, Page 5

Conscription Of Britain's U.S. Dollars

LONDON. February IS). A treasury order announces the first call up of Britain's dollars. 11 compels investors in the United Kingdom with holdings in 60 nominated United States railway and industrial undertakings to sell them to the Government for cash, which it is hoped to reinvest in British Government stocks. It is believed that a sum of £24,000,000 is involved. Saturday's Wall Street prices will be paid at an exchange rate of 4 dollars 31 cents to the pound. It is felt that the sequestration of British investors’ holdings in America may portend an expansion of British purchases in the United States, says the Washington correspondent of the "New York Times." The sequestration is generally welcomed. as it is felt that liquidation by the Bank of England will be far more orderly than by small 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 gold and security in the United States exceed 3.000.000 dollars.