Financial Notes
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ARGENTINE RAILWAYS.
NOT the least important feature in markets has been the recent fall in Argentine Railway securities, a movement scarcely surprising in view of the difficulties with which the Railways have had to contend both as regards exchange facilities and as regards what may be termed unfair local competition. Thus at the recent meeting of the Central Argentine Railway, the Chairman, Mr. W. Howard-Williams, in reviewing the position of the Central Argentine, and indeed of the British-owned railways in Argentina spoke very plainly, but not too plainlywith regard to the difficulties with which the companies had to contend. He reminded his hearers that no less. than £277,000,000 has been invested by British people in the Argentine Railway, an investment prompted by the belief that the capital would enjoy the protection • and guarantee of the Argentine Constitution, Instead of that protection,' however, Mr. Howard-Williams gave instances of what he frankly described as " premeditated antagonism towards. Foreign Capital." Among such instances he mentioned exchange control arrangements, whereby the Argentine. Government requires exchange at 15 pesos and sells to the Railways at 17 pesos, equivalent to a tax of 2 peSos in the on all remittances, although the railways are exempted under the Mitre Law from National taxation.
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