C OMPANY MEETING
WESTMINSTER BANK LIMITED
CONTINUED EXPANSION LORD ALDENHAM'S STATEMENT The declaration of this dividend has come as a disappointment to some of our share- tolders, since several of our competitors have een able to declare increased dividends. But tdr many years now this Bank has paid a ,,'"glter rate of dividend than almost all its `„"Metitors, and we arc still in that proud "sition. We decided to show in our published statement of 30th June, 1952, the depreciation °a our holdings of British Government securities which had occurred in the previous Months, without minimizing that deficiency Y any transfer from inner reserves or from 1-Irrent profits. That temporary deficiency has 3 een recovered since then, but after so recent the so sharp a reminder of the way in which 'fle market value of even British Government securities may fluctuate we have decided with regret that the whole of the profits of 1953, after payment of taxation and of the usual dividend, should go to fortify the Published and the Inner Reserves, upon which we rely 13(3 take care, not only of such losses as these, normal risks of business,
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