These vouchers will carry interest not at 44 but at
5 per cent, per annum, for every complete calendar month ; and if any investor wishes at any time to convert his vouchers into money he can lodge them in the Post Office Savings Bank and immediately withdraw them as cash, but no interest in that case will be payable. The list of applications for the Loan will be closed on or before July 10th, and the dividend for the first half-year will be paid on December lst. In the ensuing debate general approval of the scheme was expressed, Mr. Goldstone, on behalf of the Labour Members, cordially welcoming the issue of the Loan in amounts which could be subscribed by the working classes. With regard to his not specifying the amount, Mr. McKenna defended his action as necessary in the circumstances. If he put in a fixed amount and the total were not reached, the Loan would be declared a failure. A limit was put in the resolution. It covered practically all the supply of the year now granted, a sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty millions in addition, and any sums required for cancelling any securities issued under the War Loan or Treasury bills which the Treasury might be authorized to cancel. In conclusion, Mr. McKenna declined to disclose any proposals for additional taxation. If the war went on, the country would of course be confronted by heavy additional taxation, but the time had not come for that yet, and he did not like to complicate the issue of the new Loan by suggestions of new taxes. The Bill was read a second time on Tuesday.
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