Finance
Bailkers on the Situation ONE of the chief events of the past week has been the holding of the annual meetings of several of the joint stock banks. They have been awaited this year with considerable interest and not least, perhaps, because there has been some curiosity as to what amount of attention the bank chairmen would give in their speeches to the loudly-voiced intentions of the extreme Socialists to make the nationalizing of the banks a foremost plank in an election programme. In that connexion some attention was naturally directed to the speech delivered last week at Bangor by Mr. Lloyd George when he partially unfolded his programme or, as it has some- times been described, his " new deal."
But while in the course of his speech Mr. Lloyd George appeared to be in favour of some kind of State control of the Bank of England policy, he went out of his way to say that he would oppose any proposals for. nationalizing the joint stock banks. Nor, perhaps, is this altogether surprising, even from an electioneering point of view, for it seems fairly clear that with so many millions of banking depositors, most of whom are believed to be utterly opposed to the nationalizing of their savings, politicians might naturally hesitate from pushing nationalization schemes in the forefront of any electioneering programme.
OUR ECONOMIC POSITION.
Interest, however, in the bank meetings was by no means confined to speculations as to what might be said with regard to schemes of nationalization, for not only shareholders of the banks but the general public usually pursue with interest the speeches of the chairmen of the leading banking institutions, knowing that after making all allowance for the reserve and caution .which usually characterizes the public utterances of the banker, they furnish one of the best reviews of the general financial situation. _ The Stock Markets may _ from time to time reflect undue optimism or undue pessimism as the case may be,_but as a rule the speeches of the bank chairmen are of an impartial and judicial character, and are delivered with the sense of responsi- bility attaching to the chairmen of institutions which act as the custodians of the liquid savings of the entire community. Moreover, the usefulness of the bank chairmen's speeches as a guide to present conditions and future prospects is increased by the fact that, coming as they do together almost within the space of a few days, it is possible to, compare the views of one banker with another and thereby to arrive at a very fair con.: sensus of opinion with regard to the situation.
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