Second Edition. THE WAR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 284, 28 November 1914, Page 6

Second Edition. THE WAR.

Great Britain

MANY SMALL APPLICANTS. United Press Association. (Received 8.55 a.m.) London, November 27 Mr Lloyd-George stated tbafc the war loan was orer.subsc.'ioed. The applicants numbered nearly a hundred thousand, of whom an enormous number were small. THE NATION'S CREDIT. UNIMPEACHABILITY OF THE BILL OF EXCHANGE. CHANCELLOR'S FINE SPEECH. (Received 11.55 a.m.) London, November 27. Mr Lloyd-George, speaking in ihe House of Commons,said that at .the beginning of the war this country could neither buy nor sell because exchange , had broken down. Though the whole world owed us money, America owed us £1,000.000,000. He assured the Labour Party that the moratorium would nofc be enforced to save a few rich people, r but to save British industry, commerce, labour and life. With' £18,000,000,000 worth of assets it would have been criminal negligence to allow the credit of the country to be in doubt for twenty-four hours for £350,000,000, of which the most was owing to our own people. Continuing, the Chancellor said: "We decided that the credit of the State must be maintained at any cost. '%: Thus the unimpeachable character of the British bill of exchange has been . maintained, and the greatest financial catastrophe the world covdd ever have seen was averted. The total loss as n result of these bill transactions. . i s about what ifc costs us for a single, week of war. Between seventy and eighty millions of Stock Exchange securities were hypothecated before the outbreak of war. If the banks had pressed, the bottom would have dropped out of the market. ". . , The' Chancellor said the machinery of exchange had been re-established despite the great world war.. We were , still strpreme in international trade y and commerce. The British money market was better than, any other in the world. Others were: coming here to borrow while we were conducting a war costing four hundred or five hundred millions a year. The fact that the Stock Exchange was closed was of serious detriment to the war , loan. Had, the Exchange been opened the loan w,ould have, been' applied for several times over. The small investor had shown his patriotism by stepping in and enabled us to raise the hugest sum "of money ever raised dur- % ing any war without any of the ex-> pedients to which Germany had resort- , ed in raising a much smaller amount at higher interest.