Quite another kind of business, Jon even larger lines, is disclosed in the final report by the London Jauditors. Price, Waterhouse & Ca., Jon the amazing machinations of the late Ivor Kreuger, the Swedish match: king.
The secret of his long success in carrying through frauds unequalled size was the absolute power that he enjoyed. He was accountable to nobody and nobody: knew exactly what he was doing. He employed different auditors for different "closely associated ce panies, contrived to restrict their examinations, employed none but. persons entirely subservient to unself, and freely forged doeuments "needed to" confirm hook Yet, say the—investizators, they" could find mo evidence: to support the view that Kreuger: possessed such business ability as to, warrant the complete freedom from Jeontrol which he enjoyed.
His manipulation of accounts dates back at least to 1917; by 1923 And 1924 the frauds had become gigantic and came to a climax in the fabrication of 21,000,000 of Ttalian Government bonds. Alto-1 the group he controlled rais-000; (000. He withdrew about,000,000 and paid £35,000, interest and dividends. The earnings of his group during the 14} years of fraud were £55,000,000 more than the veal earnings Tt isan interesting speculation with Kreuger. as with all these mighty swindlers, whether he went. fon from fraud to fraud desperately hoping for something at last him. to. put everything straight, or whether he boldly and unblushingly plumped for a short life and a merry one, Fourteen Jand a half years was probably more than he would have had to serve in prison.
Budgets and Business The Late George Saintsbury As a corrective to the hopefulness of Mr, 'Me""onna and-other chair-ten of annual bank. meetings, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. gave title douche "on "Satu night at Birmingham by assuring Usjthat if he unbalanced the Budget order to reduce income-tax or the price of beer' we should soon fool Te in ways "fax more disagroeable to the taxpayer than even the edbtinuance for a little longer of the burdens which press upon us so hata "Which probably means no more jit tian it says. Even the Chancellor ahet et fell how things will be April, and optimism and possi arns are equally out of pla financial wrongness is_one of the most eirrious phenomena of the Yet if Mr. Chamberlain is how is it that France, with a deficit of £80,000,000 increasing daily by a quarter of a. million, and. America with a deficit of hundreds of millions—and both peoples frenziedly opposed to any Additional taxation, seem to get along no worse than others who pinch and serape to pay their way?
Tin some respects the others seem to be the only ones to suffer. "The recent ris in sterling is attributed fo the large sums recently sent to London by nervous Frenchmen and "Now we do not want money. It might at any moment be withdrawn as quickly it cama with correspondingly violent movement of sterling in the opposite direction In all these uncertainties, we might do worse than get Wool worth's to run the counts Their profit for the past year, including Balance from the year before was Sorta 08 all. the my tsi dividends, setting as S040,828 for cine writing Premiese and fanmiture, consider: Xbly more than in 1091 and talking payment te the stod? benevolent Incidentally he hated the title "Professor," which came to him when he succeeded the late David ston as Professor of English perature in 1895, and to the end of his life preferred his letters. to addressed as "Esq." Also, although the world knew him as George, to, his family he was Edward or Ted. It may truly be said of him that he was alwa; reading, from the day when Jeould read, which was so young that he remembered nothing before snd he never forgot. As a boy, [coming home each 1 from King's School (his father then lived in London) he read all through his tea, helping himself abstractedly with one hand, a book in the other, {and straight on till he went to bed: Oddly enough, although he ended at Oxford with a first in Greats, he had only taken a second in Mods. Hig failure to be elected to a fellow. [ship was a blow. He often said that the ideal life was to be Master of a college at Oxford.
Yet one cannot help feeling that this ideal life would have been too narrow for him. He was, in addi tion to being a scholar" of unsurpassed learning, a man of the world, of the widest interest. always knew the county cricket scores and positions, and remember-Jed Derby winners and their years as Well as the raciest racing man. The papers are wrong in saying that the Athenwum was his only club. He belonged to the Savile for" years, "where once he and Andrew Long sat on the floor of animals, which they had bought on the smoking-room and. raced toy
the kerb, against each other.
"As a critic he-had that rare gift of being able to tell you to-day what Sou wil think, ets book ority Years hence." "Tam books "are rot)" said R. I Stevenson on being" introduced ta) Bing toe aah gf them said Saintsbury, "I said parts of them jate rot. Come and dine to-night." The two became great friends, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.