Mr. Asquith, who dined with the Central Association of Bankers
and the Association of English Country Bankers on Wednesday night, dealt in his speech with the fall in Consols and with industrial unrest. After noting amongst other factors in the situation the enormous increase in the area legally open to trustees for the investment of trust funds and the demand for a higher yield of interest "which always accompanies an era of trade activity," Mr. Asquith asked his hearers to observe that the fall in the market value of Government securities had markedly taken place during a series of years when Parliament had made larger provision than ever was known before for the reduction and extinction of our capital liability. In the six years ended March 1911 we had reduced our debt by £64,000,000, or £10,500,000 a year. In the same period the debts of France and Italy had been reduced by £17,000,000 and £8,000,000, while those of Germany and Austria had been increased by £83,000,000 and £112,000,000 respectively. He agreed with Sir Felix Schuster that the signs in the indus- trial sky ought to warn them against a temper of complacent optimism. The Government were giving the problem of industrial unrest their closest attention, and he invited time bankers of the United Kingdom to contribute to its solution by suggestion and, where possible, by wise and fruitful experi. went.
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