* * * * Rio Truro.
At the annual meeting of the Rio Tinto Company Sir Auckland Geddes, whose speeches are always heard with con-
■ siderable interest, took a very level view with regard to the general outlook in Spain. So far as prices of the metal were concerned, Sir Auckland remarked that the company was equipped and ready to live through any period of depression in copper prices any producer of the metal could face so far as costs of production were concerned. Then, of course, there were the risks attendant on taxation and political prospects. He pointed out, however, that for the past seven years more than 50 per cent. of the company's real operating profit had been taken by the Governments under which they worked, and for last year the Government was really taking 66 per cent., the shareholders receiving only 33 per cent. of the dis- tributed operating profit. Sir Auckland was not unduly per- turbed by the change in the political situation, and looking beyond the present period of exceptional depression he was
disposed to take a hopeful view of the future. A. W. K.
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