TOBACCO SECURITIES TRUST COMPANY, LIMITED
INCREASED TAXATION EFFECTS
THE twelfth annual general meeting of this company was held, on January 25th, in London.
The Right Hon. Lord Catto of Cairncatio presided, and in moving the adoption of the report said that the profit and loss account showed a net income for the year of £535,700, compared with £577,153 the previous year, a falling off of £41,453. The re.luc- tion in the net income figure was due entirely to increased taxation. That would not surprise stockholders, he thought, when they remembered the heavy additional burdens imposed by the War Budget.
He was conscious that his remarks at thqse meetings were re- ceived with more cordiality by the ordinary stockholders than by the deferred stockholders. That he regretted, but he did not blame them. Their stock participated only after a great dividend (15 per cent.) had been paid on the ordinary capital. They received a higher dividend at a time when additional earnings of a special nature were made by the company in one or two years some time ago, but that was in periods of exceptional financial activity. Such activity did not now exist, and when it would return he was unable to prophesy. They would remember that two years ago he had said that they had disposed of a large part of their stock of shellac and that if there were any loss on the balance it would not be allowed to affect their earnings but would be dealt with out of the com- pany's reserves. The latter eventuality, he felt sure, would not now arise at all. What he wanted to emphas'se today was that they were dependent for increased profits principally upon improved results of the tobacco companies in which the bulk of their assets was invested and also, in the ma4i, upon the continued expansion of the tobacco business. On the whole, there had been a slight improvement, as was indicated by the fact that actually their gross income for the year under review was a little higher than for the previous year. How the tobacco business in general would be affected by the war it was not possible foi him at the moment to venture an opinion.
The report was unanimously adopted.
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