THE " SHELL " MEETING.
A more liquid position than that displayed in the " Shell " Transport and Trading Company it would be difficult to find, for at the recent annual meeting Lord Bearsted stated that the company's present holding in cash and -Government securities was affout -1173000,000,7'NeverthelessT-this—great liquidity, as Lord Bearsted himself pointed out, is, of course, in itself a symptom of the present stagnation of business all over the world. "The whole world," stated Lord Bearsted, "is suffering from an over-liquidity due to low prices of commoffities and lack of confidence." More- over, as regards the future, the chairman Of the "Shell" Transport and Trading Company adopted a cautious tone, expressing the opinion that the industry was not at the end, of diminution in consumption, though at the same time he expressed the hope that there would be no further fall in prices which have already dropped to an uneconomic level in many countries. With regard to the recent conference in New York between representatives of the leading oil interests, Lord Bearsted said that although there was
no tangible result from the Russian discussions, the cordial ;relations established between the other oil interests of the world should have beneficial effects on the future of the
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