7 NOVEMBER 1908, Page 29

[To THE EDITOR OF THIS "SPROT1TOH.1

Sra,—May I call the attention of Mr. Ellis Barker, and any of your readers who have been startled by the suggestions he has recently made in your columns, to an article in the Quarterly Review for July, 1907, on British investments abroad ? The writer, who gives authorities and figures to support his con- clusions, tells up that the British investments abroad may be estimated, according to their present market value, at two thousand eight hundred million pounds sterling, and that if to this sum is added the capital employed in British. shipping engaged in Colonial and foreign trade, and the capital of telegraph, insurance, and other companies carrying on business abroad, the figure will be raised to three thousand one hundred and fifty millions sterling. The Reviewer calculates that the annual income which accrues to the United Kingdom in respect of these investments exceeds a hundred and forty millions sterling, and suggests that the capital subscribed for foreign and Colonial investment in 1906 was more than seventy millions pound sterling. Comment is needless.—I am, Sir,