Their Issuance is to be Conducted as a Lottery Tokyo, Mar. 7.
The Government's recent announcement that it will issue small-denomination bonds carrying a chance to win a premium has had the effect ai lessening the interest in and the market value of straight savings of investment bonds, the Miyako reports. People are gossiping in the streets about the new bonds and planning to buy them, while not caring much about the old-style bonds, the paper reports.
The reason for this, the paper explains, are that the new bonds will cost only Y. 10 each, and their issuance is to be conducted as a lottery, the drawing of the lucky number enabling someone to win Y. 10000. To meet the competition, premiums on the savings bonds which. were issued throughout the country yesterday for the 16th time, have been raised from 150 to 300 times their face value.
Consequently the people of a speculative turn of mind are said to be cancelling their orders for savings bonds and even in some cases selling them at a discount in order to have funds available for the purchase of the new bonds when they appear.
However, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yukio Sakurauchi, takes a much more optimistic view of the situation. We do not deny that many will dispose of their savings bonds or draw their deposits out of banks in order to purchase the new bonds, but we believe this is but a passing phenomena. Those who are fond of speculating will buy the new bonds, whereas those who prefer savings will invest their money in the old-style bond.—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.