In another column the striking success of the National Savings Campaign in Britain is reported. Starting on November 22, and consequently now one hundred days old the campaign has resulted in no less a sum than £100, 000,000 having been invested in national savings certificates, and defence bond investments. The two new forms of securities which the Government has issued consist of an old friend in the shape of the National Savings Certificates, in rather more attractive presentation, and an issue of Three Per Cent. Defence Bonds purchasable in units of £5. Both the securities have the quality indispensable to the small investor or possessor of limited capital of being immune from nominal depreciation, and it is stated ne one will run the risk of having to sell them for less than they cost. The certificates of which investors can only hold a limited amount will not be subject to income tax. The Defence Bonds will be, but as the tax will not be deductible at source, those who are not liable to the tax will not need to claim repayment, No one may hold more than 500 certincates or £1,000 worth of Defence Bonds, so that it is apparent that the £1000000,000 represents the spreading of the investment over a very large number of subscribers, and a most hearty response. The excellence of that response is to be found in the fact that during the two-an a-half years' currency of the War Savings Certificates, in the course of the last war, only £217,000,009 was subscribed, so that it is ap parent that a greater effort is being made now than was the case over two decades ago. Wher. his is shown to be the case after the very heavy Budget which Sir John Simon recently intro. duced, it is realized that the monetary capacity of the British is still a long way from nearing; exhaustion. No schemes for compulsory saving such as have been introduced in other countries, have as yet been put forward. They have been discussed by some of the leading econom ists, but it is unlikely that they will be pu: nto force unless it is shown that the voluntary scheme fails to come up to preséiit expectations Such a contingency is not to be feared, for the voluntary discipline of the democracy' is thu: being vindicated against the servile oppression to be witnessed in Germany itself. The remark has been made in Shanghai that probably some Britons would like to join in the movement along lines similar to those during the last war. The feasibility of the suggestion needs investigation and it is to be hoped that som public spirited man will take the matter up.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.