22 NOVEMBER 1924, Page 3

The Cabinet has decided not to sell the State's shares

in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The British Govern- mentowns five million out of roughly nine million ordinary shares issued by the Company. Last year an offer of a little over £3 15s. per share was made to the Government. This meant a profit of nearly £3 a share. Mr. Baldwin's first Administration was considering the offer when it fell from power. The Labour Government decided not to sell the shares. The Political Correspondent of the Daily News says that the reasons for this decision were first, that it would not be in the national interest to let the shares pass to a Combine and secondly that the shares ought to be held on behalf of the Navy for whose sake the original investment was made—very good reasons which remain valid.

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