COMPANY MEETING
THE EASTERN BANK
SATISFACTORY RESULTS
THE 29th annual meeting of The Eastern Bank, Ltd., was held on March 22nd in London. Sir James Leigh-Wood, K.B.E. (the chairman) referred to the grievous loss the Bank had suffered in the death of Mr. J. S. Haskell, and, dealing with the accounts, said that the final outcome was satisfactory in view of the general situation and the continued low prices of commodities with which they were concerned. There was a reduction of L217,000 in deposits. Cash had increased by i125,000 at £1,232,500, representing 16 per cent, of their current and deposit accounts. On the assets side there was an increase of £537,000 in securities which stood at £5,900,655, and was largely the outcome of the reduced demand for advances and falling off in bills receivable as these two combined accounts were less by ii,06o,000. The net profit was lower by k15,5oo at £111,600, from which it was proposed to place ,C40,000 to contingency account and pay a final dividend of 4s. per share, less tax. The recently introduced Indian Budget was reassuring and showed an estimate for a small surplus in 1939-40, without substan- tial increase in taxation, with the exception of the tariff on raw cotton. He sincerely hoped that the Trade Agreement concluded on Monday between Great Britain and India would go some way to restore the export in cotton goods. They were deeply interested in Iraq, and maintained close and friendly relations with the Govern- ment and peoples of that country. Iraq had had a balanced Budget for several years, and whilst that for 1939-40 showed a small esti- mated deficit, there should be little difficulty in adjustment as there was a substantial rise in income, not only from oil, but also from Customs and Excise, which now provided half the total revenue estimated at £5,7oop00, of which unfortunately no less than D,600,000 was required for the Defence programme.
With the revival of confidence, he believed there would be a return to the more simple ways of financial and commercial trans- actions that had served so well for generations. There were signs of basic recovery in the U.S.A. and France, but it would be idle to deny the gravity of the international situation, which must falsify hope of any immediate and general improvement in trade and commerce.
The report was adopted.
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