BRITISH WAR LOAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 9

BRITISH WAR LOAN

I PROGRESS OF CONVERSION MAGNITUDE OF OPERATIONS (Received July 29, 6.35 p.m.) LONDON, July 28 Of the 74,000 further applications for conversion of war loan stock received by the Bank of England yesterday, only 800 wore for redemption. The total applications to date are as follows: —Bank of England, 1,086,000; Post Office Savings Bank, 666,000; Trustees Savings Bank, 86,000; Bank of Ireland, 31,000; grand total, 1,869,000, of which 1,755,000 lire for conversion. The total holdings are about 2,600,000. The Swiss Bank Corporation yesterday deposited for conversion holding 3of £1,000,000, and other large applications are announced from Switzerland and South .Africa. There are 4500 clerks exclusively occupied in the conversion, of whom 2400 are at the , Bank of England. The staff's operations have been mechanised to a degree. Megaphones are used on every floor to convey general instructions to the staff. The magnitude of the task is shown by the fact that in the index room alone are 3,500,000 cards with 13,000,000 entries regarding stocks held in banks. The Post Office authorities also are proud of their achievement in dealing with 5,000,000 extra letters a month. Although the Government only promised the payment of the 20s bonus within a fortnight the Post Office succeeded in despatching the warrants within two days. Mr. Montague Norman, governor of the Bank of England, states that special arrangements to meet overseas applicants for the bonus will depend upon the dato of mailing. If conversions are received in December from the Solomon Islands the bonus will be paid.