The Strafford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1914. GUARDING AGAINST RISKS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 74, 18 July 1914, Page 4

The Strafford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1914. GUARDING AGAINST RISKS.

Nowadays, in the Old Country at least, one is able to take out an insurance policy on almost afhy risk going. The underwriters are stated to have effected record business in point of botli volume and profit in connection with the prospective taxation alterations under the recently declared British Budget. Having calculated approximately the increased amount which they will have to pay under the revised scale of income tax duty and taken credit for the premiums received for "budget business," the underwriters found themselves at least £50,000 to the good on their operations since the commencement of the current J r ear. The number of policies issued on this occasion against variations in taxation on commodities such as tea, sugar, tobacco, etc., was, as indicated, ' the highest on record; but on not a single policy had the underwriters to pay a penny. A few claims may yet mature in regard to income-tax risks, which I Were accepted some time ago; but, as no obligations of that nature were booked more recently, the amount of such liability, it is believed, can be only small. It is quite natural, therefore, the Mercantile Gazette says, that when the Budget proposals were disclosed and when the underwriters discovered that practically the whole of the business was safe, there was a ■ feeling of relief and satisfaction, which was the more pronounced because, almost simultaneously, one or two rather heavy marine insurance claims matured. On these latter, with all the Budget premiums "in the bag," the underwriters were able to look complacently, as they could also upon any other claims within reason falling due about the same time. It is notorious that Budget insurance business in England pays handsomely, as a rule, underwriters usually forming a shrewd idea of the probable emanations from the Chancellor of the Exchequer with regard to taxation. This year, it seems, they proved to be more than oi-dinarily j accurate in their anticipations on the subject, and they benefited proportionately.