GOOD START

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21608, 20 March 1940, Page 7

GOOD START

First War Loan Is Oversubscribed Government’s Financial Policy British Official Wireless RUGBY, March 18. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Simon) announced in the House of Commons to-day that the war loan of £300,000.000 had been oversubscribed. The Chancellor said that it was a very satisfactory beginning to the series of loan operations which the Government must contemplate in carrying on the war. He paid a tribute to the support given by all classes and, in particular, the small investors. Sir John proceeded to make a statement on the Government’s intentions

f : affecting the future issue of Government securities. “The policy of the Government is to aim at stability in interest rates and to secure that the yields offered on future loans, whatever their type, shall, after making due allowance for such factors as the period of a loan, be in agreement with the level of the interest rates established by the terms of the recent 2 per cent conversion loan and the 3 per cent war loan just issued,” he declared. “In there circumstances, I welcome the action taken to-day by the committee of the London Stock Exchange in announcing a revised list of minimum prices for Government securities. The new minima bear closer relation to the existing prices than those fixed on the outbreak of war, and they may be taken as evidence of the desire on the part of the authorities concerned to co-operate in a policy of maintaining interest rates at the present level.”

After Mr F. W. Pethick-Lawrence (Labour) had exprerjed the satisfaction of the House, Sir John Simon added that the usual practice would be followed of allotting small applications in full. Larger applicants had been allotted about 80 per cent of the amount applied for.