LOAN TO ESTONIA.
With one or two important exceptions the market is not now looking for further issues under what is known -as the Trades Facilities Act, under which, it will be remembered, the Government consented to guarantee principal and interest on certain loans where the proceeds can be shown to have directly ministered to employment here and the purchase of British materials. In the case of a small loan which has recently been taken privately by one of, the leading insurance companies, some interest attaches to the transaction, reflecting, as it does, the confidence here- in the general financial policy and stability of the Estonian Government, The loan was merely for £130,000, granted to Estonia for ten years, repay- ment to be made in equal annual instalments. The price of issue was 98}, the interest payable being 5 per cent. The proceeds were for the acquisition in this country of permanent- way materials and for the rebuilding of a part of the Tallinn (Reval)-Pernau Railway line, which is at present in hand. The orders for materials were placed in this country, though, but for the credit obtained, it seems likely they would have gone elsewhere, lower tenders having been received from
foreign countries. * * * *
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