Portfolio
Going east
Nephew Wilde
Nothing rouses my broker, Wotherspool more quickly to anger than left-wing politics. Thus I caught him frothing at the mouth !ast week as he watched the Labour Party conference on TV and tortured himself by listening to the cry for nationalisation.
"Must write to Heath," said Wotherspool. " I'll tell him what to do to those Reds."
Now I've always been suspicious of people who write letters to the Times or the Queen or the PM ever since I was told about my uncle Willie's activities. At the time of the First World War he constantly wrote to the Admiralty from Ireland where he was living. He offered such startling advice as "in order to avoid sinking by torpedo, seamen should be placed around the ship with long poles in order to divert the missile."
Well I persuaded Wotherspool not to waste his time or Heath's but I did get him to tell me what he would have said. His basic plan was quickly to introduce inflation accounting which, though it SpeCtatOr October 13, 1973 would have a bad impact on certain areas of private enterprise, such as heavy engineering, would really show up nationalised industry in a bad light. Of course this would only be a windowdressing exercise for propaganda reasons, since the Government would lose a lot of tax revenue if they all showed losses.
For my own part I am very worried about the UK equity market for two main reasons. First the optimists are saying that when the effects of devaluation come through our balance of payments will be healthier. In theory they should but the labour and supply shortage could have a bad impact on this rosy picture. Secondly hopes are being expressed that commodity prices will fall. I would not be so sure, especially as currency uncertainties will draw back the speculators into commodities and push prices up again. This said, it is appropriate that I should look outside the UK for my investment selection this week. In fact I air plumping for Haw Par, the Singapore arm of Slater Walker. Its interests in the Far East are widespread and it also holds 29 per cent of London Tin. If Haw Par acquires London Tin this will be of considerable benefit to Kamunting and also Haw Par itself. I am selling Hargreaves this week which leaves me with healthy cash resources to continue to take advantage of special situations.
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