Last year I reported to you the acquisition of the remaining shares in the China Brass & Iron Works Ltd. and informed you of our intention to liquidate that company ang imcorporate the business with our own. This has now been done and in consequence you will notice the item plant and machinery that appears for the first time among the fixed assets in the balance sheet. This plant and machinery as was anticipated has been kept fully employed. Stock and work in progress after deduction of payments received on account are shown in one item. This item includes general stock, workshop stock and jobs in course of manufacture and also labour and materials expended on uncompleted contracts less payments on account. In accordance with past practice no profit has been taken on partially completed contracts. The value of stock in hand is greater than in former years. This is partly due to the maintenance of a larger supply of materials on hand in view of the uncertainty of future deliveries and partly to the greatly increased cost óf the materials themselves,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.