Last Saturday, at the banquet given by the Lord Mayor
of London to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the bankers, very different points of view were taken in the speeches of Mr. Lloyd George and of the Governor of the Bank of England. Mr. Lloyd George said that he could not make any statement as to what market he would go into in applying his surplus of £5,000,000 to the Old Sinking Fund. He congratulated the City on the "unequalled prosperity of trade?' The Governor of the Bank of England thought it was a matter for regret that Mr. Lloyd George had not. been able to receive the representatives of the banks who wished to draw attention to facts which were of importance to national finance, but had nothing to do with politics. There were many causes for anxiety. "Bankers know that you cannot injure one portion of the community without the rest suffering." The sense of financial insecurity had brought about a great depreciation in home investments. When brewers and landowners were hit others suffered. For example, the Birkbeck Bank failed when its brewery invest- ments had depreciated 47 per cent, and its ground rents by some very considerable amount. Such a failure was ruinous to small investors. A similar failure which would have affected thousands of poor people had been narrowly averted. The excessive death duties forced the sale of Consols and brought down the price of all gilt-edged securities.
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